Training Targets for 2015

As some may know, I've had some injury problems recently :
A suspected broken finger, a painful right knee and a VERY painful right shoulder.


After today's gentle 32 miles in the muddy lanes.

These injuries eventually stopped me training (except for a few road bike rides) and no weight-training, no Karate, no running and no mountain biking made me rather frustrated. I substituted training with beer and junkfood and set about being a happy slob for the last month. I even ended up getting amazingly drunk one Friday night and making an idiot of myself on social media...(Note to self: I must make sure I don't get left alone in the house on a Friday night ever again.)
I'm now happy to report that, although the finger and knee are still a little sore at times, the shoulder seems to have righted itself!

With this in mind, I did an MOT on myself to assess the damage done:

Start of September:

10st 2 lbs

Blood pressure: 125/76

Resting heart rate: 51

 

Today:

10st 1 lbs 

Blood pressure: 127/75

Resting heart rate: 40 [checked twice on both arms!]

Erm, so what does this mean? That cake and beer and no exercise lower your heart rate? Isn't a low heart rate an indication of fitness? Why have I lost weight? Could I have lost muscle mass through lack of exercise?
Confusing stuff. I suppose that 6 weeks of inactivity isn't long enough to have an adverse effect on the body.

Anyhoo, the serious training starts tomorrow and I've got a simple plan:
Cut out the sugary foods, dramatically cut out alcohol (aiming for 2 or 3 ales per week), and exercise every day. I'll be emphasising the running and cycling and cutting back on the weight-training in an effort to keep the shoulder happy. At least until Christmas.

So what am I training for? I have 5 definite targets with 2 others that I'd like to do:

• The Cannock Chase Winter Classic - a mountain bike race that hasn't got a date yet. This year it was in February but I didn't ride it.

• The Mad March Hare - 65-75 miles of road riding on 1st March. It will be cold and probably wet. With a massive hill somewhere along the route it has been a challenging but enjoyable ride for the last 2 years!

• The Dynamic 100 - I enjoyed riding this road cycling event with mates this summer and raising over £200 for Macmillan. As the name suggests, it's just over 100 miles long!

• Race the Train, Tywyn - My biggest challenge this year will be running 5.5 miles off road in Wales, chasing a steam train!

• 3rd Kyu - A brown belt in karate. I'm sure that Martha will be able to achieve this with me next year.

My 2 other targets are both mountain bike races:

• The Cannock Chase Summer Classic - a great race with a great atmosphere. I really enjoyed it this year even though I was badly (and painfully) hampered by injury.

• Forest of Dean Enduro - I've entered this race twice and enjoyed it both times. Quite possibly my favourite thing to do on two wheels.

If anyone would like to do any of these challenges with me, get in touch! The more the merrier. I'd love to train together with you too.

So that's the plan. I'm aiming to complete at least 5 of these 7 next year, but to do that, the serious work needs to start now. I'm in my forties and living on beer and cake. Things have got to change!

Knee update: 2 solutions

I've rested the knee for a week. I've driven to work with the rest of the cagers for the last five days. I haven't run my usual 6 miles per week. All I've done is lift some weights [avoiding squats, lunges and deadlifts].
I was very eager to get back on the bike today so I leapt out of bed at 6:30 ready for action. By 8am I was at Jonnie's and the poor guy was still in his dressing gown!
On the road at 8:20 we were prepared for a soaking. Happily, the BBC weather got it all wrong and our ride was a dry one! I chose a shortish ride to test the knee - a total of 22 miles through places like Packwood and Henley, finishing with our usual ride through Tanworth and the 3 mile time trial back to Jonnie's.
It was a quick fun ride, with beautiful scenery. In a playful mood, we decided early on that Jonnie was to be Contador and dance up the climbs while I was being Froome with some serious high-cadence stem-staring.
The knee? Today it was almost back to normal. I was so relieved to find that all I had to contend with was a dull ache after dashing up some of the steepest hills in the area. Of course, the resting of the legs must have helped the knee to recover but I also had two not-so-secret weapons with me. The first was a change of pedals: The terrible Toys-R-Us quality pedals that the Specialized was supplied with were hurting my feet and may have been having an adverse effect on the knee. I spent some quality fettling time on Saturday and managed to construct some Frankenstein pedals out of some bodies from Deadly Dan and some French toe clips taken from the Holdsworth. They were dramatically more comfortable and must have taken some of the pressure off the knee. My second solution was to wear an elasticated bandage donated by my mother during a visit on Saturday. It seems to have worked a treat!

22.53 miles at 14.3mph. A fun ride with a good result for the knee! Phew.
Next week, 40 miles heading out to Alvechurch, perhaps?

Kenilworth Castle Knee Explosion

Another Sunday ripe with possibilities.
Jonnie and I made a difficult decision and opted for a road ride rather than joining Gary, Deadly and Craig at the Wyre forest for some off-road fun. The main reason was Jonnie's new Shimano shoes and pedals which he was eager to try out. This would be the first time that either of us had been 'clipped-in'.

As it turned out, Jonnie rode as if he'd been clipped in all his life! I never saw him hesitate at any junction during the whole ride - impressive stuff. He said the Shimano gear was comfortable and easy to use. For a fraction over £100, that's got to be good. [Shotokancyclist is not sponsored by Shimano, BTW].
Jonnie took us out to Kenilworth Castle. On a beautiful sunny morning it was a delightful ride, if a little busy on some of the roads.

The only downside was the fact that my bad knee has started to play up at about the 10 mile mark. By 22 miles, the pain was ruining my ride and I was scared of really injuring myself. I owned up and told Jonnie that I had to head home. Unfortunately, it meant cutting our ride short and we only completed 36 miles. However, the average time of 14.1mph was still Jonnie's personal best and, without my aching knee slowing us down, he could have easily approached the magic 15mph mark.

The Majors Series - 5k in the mud

We were lucky with the weather. The cold grey start gave way to a brighter, less chilly morning without much wind. Sally [wife of Uncle Jonnie] was kind enough to drive four of us out there. The other competitors from South and City College Birmingham were at the 10K distance and had already set off. We had entered ourselves for the much saner 5K event.

The warm-up consisted of being shouted at by a soldier who looked a bit like Jessie from Obese: A Year to Save My Life. The ladies and Steve were suitably impressed. Private Jessie had us spinning round arm in arm, lying on our backs in the mud and jumping up and down doing high-fives before I could say 'WTF is this sh!t?'

The actual start was a hesitant few steps into wet grass and mud before realizing that the whole course was ankle deep in grey filth. Then I just started running in it and hoping that the ankles held up to the punishment...

The plan had been to run with Steve but he was being much more sensible and taking it easy on the slippery stuff. Then came the first real obstacle - imagine coming across a watery bog surrounded by broken, barren trees. Obviously, you'd turn back or try to find a way round. But apparently not when you're running one of these assault courses, that would be considered bad form. So it was that I found myself in a long line of other horrified Karrimor-clad people, nipples deep in freezing brown water and ankles deep in thick, sucking mud. After wading, dragging and stumbling out of the bog, I was then expected to run up a hill or two and then wade across a lake. Yes, a lake. Up to my chest in freezing cold lake. Then to wade across another bit of the lake. And then another bit. After that, a spot of mud running/stumbling, then a hill... you get the picture.

Actually the pictures are here. You just need to type in my number: 0396.

The big disappointment for me came after about 3K, just before the hill slide: a queue. Not a queue of about 10 or 12 people, but a queue of about 50, maybe more, A queue that lasted minutes. A queue where people behind me could push past to catch up with their friends at the front of the queue. And that was okay, apparently. It really did beg the question: why was I wearing a timing chip? Would it time how long I spent queuing? Would it count how many red-faced chubby girls elbowed me out of the way so that they could stand next to the rest of the girls from the local ASDA? The hill slide itself was great fun, especially the bit where I did a 180 half way down and found myself hurtling head first instead of feet first.

Disappointingly, there was another huge queue for the barbed wire obstacle, a queue which I obediently stood in to the point where I started shivering. 15 minutes ago I had been sweating. The obstacle itself was crap - a crawl through the mud under barbed wire. Unfortunately, the mud was laced with rocks. Lucy and I had a lovely collection of cuts and bruises on our knee-caps to compare later on.

The ending of the event was great. I made a mad sprint for the line although who I was competing against at the time I have no idea. Perhaps I considered myself a young, muddy Seb Coe being chased down by the horribly working class and equally muddy Steve Ovett? Whatever I was thinking, head back and panting, I crossed the line a happy, filthy 39 year old in a muddy field near Tamworth.

I managed to raise about £120 for MacMillan nurses over my 2 event challenge [I did the Mad March Hare cycle ride 6 days earlier] as well as testing my ability to complete a messy, demanding event like this. The big surprise [besides queuing] was the fact that I ran the whole thing. I suppose I'm actually fitter than I thought I was. A few more weekend beers and slices of bread pudding should sort that out, though.

Big love and thanks to: Lucy, Sally, Naomi, Steve, Natasha, Raye, Clare, Craig the Bear, Laurie, Jo and all of my sponsors.

Frustrated at the Dojo

After Sunday's huge effort at the Mad March Hare, I discovered that I have a very tender right knee. When I woke up on Monday morning it was so stiff and painful that I was limping. To make matters worse, I had to abandon my usual ride into work and turn back to use the car!
The biggest concern, however, is the fact that I'm due to run in a charity assault course on Saturday morning:

The Major Series

This means that I have to look after the knee and give it time to heal. This in turn means that I couldn't risk aggravating it by doing karate tonight. I had to be a spectator - one of those dour-faced parents, sitting on the benches at the side of the hall flicking through a phone for an hour or disrespecting the dojo by talking to a friend for the entire lesson.

Martha was very brave and went ahead with the lesson even though I couldn't take part. I made sure my phone was switched off, politely ignored the woman sitting next to me who tried to talk to me, and focused my attention on the karate. Martha's karate is STRONG! She was by far the best orange belt there tonight and her confidence is growing every lesson. I was very proud of her. Every time she came over to our kit-bag for a drink or to put on her training mitts, we exchanged a few words - mainly encouragement and discussions on improvement.

I felt sorry for the other young people whose parents were present but who were staring glassy-eyed at mobile phones, newspapers, books or chatting away to each other and popping out to smoke cancersticks. They should try to take a little more interest in their child's fantastic new interest - Shotokan Karate - and they would probably find that the hour would fly by, just as it did for me.

I was desperate to join in tonight and even considered volunteering when Sensei was demonstrating a technique - even though I was wearing jeans! I can't wait for the knee to heal so I can strap a gi on and get stuck in once more.

The Mad March Hare 2014

The Mad March Hare, organised out of Cult Racing Cycles in Earlswood, is an annual sportive that travels down to the edge of the Cotswolds and back, taking in some breathtaking views and some literally breathtaking climbs.
Uncle Jonnie, Fast Ant, Dangerous Dave and I decided to sign up for the event a few months back, and I for one had been looking forward to the ride all winter. Jonnie and I used it as our inspiration to do some rather challenging training rides, in weather when we wouldn't normally venture outdoors. Jonnie started his training on one of my other bikes - a steel-framed 1979 Holdsworth Mistral in cracking condition. However, the weight of the machine and the limited gears were holding him back and he eventually upgraded to a fine Trek Madone 3.1. Carbontastic!
On the day of the sportive, we arrived at the starting line to find Dave on his new racing bike and Fast Ant on his 26 inch wheeled touring bike complete with a pannier! The ride started off very pleasantly, with the weather initially being kind to us. Jonnie and I lost touch with Dave and Ant at around about the 15 mile mark. We continued to battle our way down through Snitterfield and past Stratford, sometimes tucked in behind a group of seven female riders who had a strange habit of suddenly stopping en mass at various points along the route! The weather took a turn for the worse about now and both Jonnie and I (due to a natural break I had to take at the 20 mile mark) found ourselves exposed and battling against a ferocious headwind. After that, we were reunited but desperate for the feedstation.
Instead, there came Ilmington and a 14% category 3 climb with a photographer lying in wait at the top. I rode side by side with Jonnie and I was extremely pleased to see him, a man who had recently given up smoking to take up cycling, ride the whole climb. He rode past people half his age who were pushing their bikes up this hill. I smiled and gave the cameraman a thumbs up. Jonnie, so much more professional than I, kept his gaze firmly locked on his stem - a la Froome.
As chance would have it, we caught up with Dave and Ant at the feed station. Our happy reunion was cut short however, by the sudden and disappointing realisation that, after queuing for around 10 minutes, the feedstation was without food! Daydreams of bread-pudding, toast or pasties vanished in a soggy puff of weak tea and bottled water. It should have been named a drink station...
Back on the road, Ant sped off into the distance, legs pumping stoically in some monstrous gear. Dave, who had been fighting cramp, tucked in with Jonnie and me and we turned our handlebars Northward for the final push.
Fuelled by magic formula (Hi 5 summer fruits energy drink) we tackled the worst that Ullenhall could throw at us, including the climb from the farm that Jonnie, as a beginner, used to walk up - but not today.
After 5 hours and 33 minutes, Dave, Jonnie and I rode over the finish line together, found Fast Ant, and indulged in coffee, bacon butties and photographs.
On the ride home, legs turning to jelly beneath us, Jonnie punctured and we changed the tubes in the rain, exhausted but determined to get back home under our own steam. Two hours later, our families together at his house, Jonnie fed us homemade beef stew and I poured some fine ales.
Cycling may not be the best hobby/sport/way of life ever, but, right at that moment,  it was hard to think of something that can compare...