Stupid Spokes

Stupid spoke on the rear wheel of my roadie is broken.  It wasn't broken when i hung it up after my ride on sunday.  It was broken when i went into the garage on monday??  Stupid thing must have broken overnight.  I have never seen or heard of that before.  I just don't have the time to go to the shop to get the spoke replaced this week until after exams (friday) so i don't have a roadie to train on.  i am seriously missing my nice get out of the house for an hour on the bike time.  oh well.  might be time to invest in a new wheel (the old one has had to deal with my weight sitting on it for over two years now, might be starting to wear out).  stupid spokes. 

Week 2 in review

Week 2.  I haven't done as much as i should have.  However:

monday 35k road

tuesday 70k road

This ride on tuesday was hard.  I felt terrible, very slow, kind of like i had 'pants on my head'.  My body was telling me i really needed a rest for a day (or more likely two).  i had done something like 260 in four days though, so it was rest time for me.  Work and uni also enforced a break on me, meaning i didnt get back on the bike until saturday morning.  

Saturday 48k road

Sunday 45k road

so all told for the week, 198k.  i should have done more.  feeling quite good now though, and will be doing a couple of decent rides early this week coming, then it's taper time for the 24 hour next weekend.  That should be good.  

I'm also going to keep a running total of the number of kilometres i do between now and august, just for my amusement.  currently that total stands at 471k on the road, and 65 on the MTB.  Exam week now, so back to work!

Diet

I forgot to mention in my previous post that diet is an important part of weight loss.  My girlfriend very politely reminded me (being the dietitian student she is) that energy intake must be less than energy output in order for a reduction in weight to occur. So, along with a heap of riding (the energy out part), i need to keep a good eye on my energy intake (all the food i munch down, in great excess).  Eat less, exercise more, pretty simple. 

A training plan (sort of...)

Lose some weight ya fat b******d.  

thats pretty much it.  Drop about ten kilos.  thats my plan.  I think its a good plan.  a ten percent reduction in useless body mass will help every aspect of my riding.  so how do i do that?

my plan for losing weight is simple.  do long (more than two hours), moderate intensity (averaging 60-70% max heart rate, about 125-150 beats per minute) no less than five days (hopefully six) a week.  endurance training and weight loss.  i think this will do the trick for the next few weeks.  after insomnia, i will turn my attention to my climbing problem, but first i need to lose just a little weight.  my road bike will be my friend for this purpose, Hooray!!

so to summarise, lots of long, moderate road kilometres to burn off fat and build endurance base.  lots of hillclimbing to start in about three weeks time.  

Goals

Goal setting.  I hear that in order to achieve your goals, you first need to have some.  With that in mind, I am going to outline my goals for the next three months, and how i am going to (try to) achieve them.  

My main goal this year is the Flight Centre Epic.  This is a 100 kilometre mountain bike race on the 24th of August this year.  I have decided to bite off more than i can chew and set myself a target time of 6 hours.  For a rather amateur, slightly overweight "racer", this might be a tall order.  That said, i am going to give this my best shot.  My two biggest issues when it comes to cycling are my excessive weight and my lack of climbing ability. These are the two demons i must slay if i am to succeed in this business.

There are 3 more races between now and the epic.  These are the Insomnia 24hour, the Noosa enduro 100k, and the Race Face 8 hour at kooralbyn.  these are nicely spaced out about 3 weeks apart each, and will be good training events to help get me up to speed for the epic.  

Insomnia is a great event, and i am racing in a two person mixed team.  the goal for our team is to keep someone on track pretty much constantly, and just see how far we can go.   I havn't raced the noosa event before, and it will be my first taste of a 100k enduro.  it is going to be a yardstick to see how i am going, and as such i don't have a time goal for it, just to race strong and not do anything silly, and learn about how my body deals with 100k on the mountain bike. 

Kooralbyn is a venue i have raced at many times before, and as such, 3 weeks out from the epic i can set some well thought out goals for that event.  In 8 hours at kooralbyn i should be able to ride constantly, and cover no less than the epic distance.  this will mean covering at least 11 laps of the course (providing its the same course as previously) and only stopping for water and food.  i also intend to make my nutrition plan pretty much identical for these two races, simple foods that i can carry on my bike and eat on the bike, gels bars and the like.  

All that is left to do now is work out how i am going to train for these goals, but thats another story...

Week 1 in review

There are 11 weeks until the Flight Centre Epic in August.  I hope to train quite specifically for this event (along with other events in between).  with that in mind, here is my first week of training in review.

Sunday: Boonah Marathon.  65k

Monday:Rainy night road recovery ride 20k

Tuesday: Road Ride 37k

Wednesday Road ride 45k

Thursday Commute to uni 21k

Friday rest

saturday gentle road ride 30k

Sunday long flat road ride 120k

average weight for the week, 98.6 kilos.  

for the week, thats 273kms on the road, and the marathon on the mtb last sunday.  not a bad start to training.  

Plan week 2:

my plan for the coming weeks involves base endurance kilometres, and weight loss.  I'm not planning any big hillclimbing sessions or speed work, just lots of long kilometres on the road, with the odd session on the mountain bike thrown in.  I have also been evaluating my goals for the coming months, an outline of them coming soon!

And I'm back

Well that was good, nice 45k social pedal around the city.  A nice way to work up a good appetite for a couple of hours.  I'm going to use this website to keep track of what riding i've done, putting up ride distances, times, routes etc.  I'll also use it for goal setting, and keeping track of races I've done.  probably going to be most boring (i'm not that creative, you see), but who knows.  so with that in mind, i shall summarise my week so far.  

Sunday, Boonah Marathon.  65km.  My goal for this race was to try to break four hours, but i would have been happy with four and a half.  Managed to get it done in 3hrs58mins, so i was a happy camper.  

Monday, the rain eased a bit in the evening, so i decided that i needed a recovery ride.  Twenty very wet and windy kilometres later, i decided that was a silly idea and was very glad to be home.  still, the wet weather gear performed well, and the ride was quite enjoyable, except when the rain really came down.  

Tuesday night was good fun.  headed over to a mates place for a road ride.  He hasn't been into this game very long and has taken to it like a duck to water.  He wanted to head somewhere different to our usual loop, so we headed west for once.  a nice 37k loop taking in some slightly hillier terrain than usual.  Lots of fun.  

So thats my week so far.  20k monday, 37k tuesday, 45k wednesday.  along with the marathon on sunday, thats not a bad week for me so far.  lets see how it pans out...

And it begins...

Time to start a training diary.  Nothing interesting, but i reckon that if my training is open to the world, i might actually do some.  With that in mind, i'm going to start keeping a record of my cycling training.  But no time to type now, the bike awaits!!