Sunday 30 September 2012

In a slump - not the greatest of months...

This month has been another poor month for cycling as I only managed to muster up 80.12 miles. The start of the month was good as I had a lovely ride to Newlyn with Ali and Amy followed by one inspired by my hero Alberto Contador when he won the Vuelta.  =D

Since then though, I have practically stayed off the bike - apart from an occasional short 2-3 mile ride behind Mikey whilst he was running and the very odd ten milers to meet him from work.

I have basically lost motivation to ride now completely.  When I do I am literally forcing myself to do it and usually when I get home I haven't enjoyed it at all. 

There's just nothing left to inspire me;  I hate that I have overused all the local routes so they are becoming very tiresome.  I hate the fact that, if and when, I do try to go further afield, that I then have to contend with longer draggier hills.  I hate the fact that bloody tourists and end-to-enders keep stealing my Queen of the Mountains on Strava - and when I say stealing  I mean blowing my personal bests out of the water. I also hate the weather and that soddin' never-ending headwind.

So as you can see... I am currently in a slump. I want to ride my bike. I love riding my bike. But nothing is motivating me to get out there. Today I even pushed out 6miles on the turbo just so I got half an hour done on the bike and so I don't loose the legs and put on too much weight. 

In fact, if it wasn't for the running.... I would now be the size of a house again.

Please someone inspire me to get back out there.... failing that, I may just have to sell a bike and buy a nice shiny new one to encourage me to ride.


Monday 10 September 2012

(Couch to) 5k!

This weekend I hit another milestone in my running progress, when me and Mum ran non-stop for 40mins!

We didn't expect to do so well, as the weather was muggy and we'd both had busy days and weren't feeling the greatest... but we just kept plodding along and when we finished 40 mins later... we were even more  ecstatic to find we had managed to do 5k!

I'm so happy! Its odd to think that in under 6mths we have gone from never running - and unable to run for a minute - to running for 40mins.  I'd like to say it's getting comfortable.... but it really isn't.  It's as difficult as it used to be and I always hate the first 10-15 mins- it's like torture - but after 15 mins I find it easier to ignore the pain, esp if I have my iPod on for distraction.

Over the last few weeks, there's been a few breaks from the normal running routine, including a super run in Bruge with Mikey.  Before Bruge me and Mum had been running for 25mins slowly-but-non-stop and averaging a pace of 12.5.  However, with Mikey things were slightly different. He wasn't verbally telling me to run faster, but without Mum, I instinctively and unconsciously did.  It felt comfortable in the short term but I burnt out quicker and had to go back to intervals; just so I had chance to catch my breath. Unsurprisingly, our running pace was considerably quicker.... averaging around an 11minute mile.  Despite being tougher and having sore feet for days after, it was such good fun running around such a beautiful (and flat) city.  I even managed to get a course record on a Strava Segment. 

On our return, I went back to running with Mum and in mid August we completed the Couch to 5k programme! We weren't achieving the 5k - but we were running for 30 mins non-stop. Quite an achievement. =D

As the weather hotted up in late August it started playing havoc with our running.  More often or not it was too hot to run.  Also the humidity really affected my lungs, leaving me quite asthmatic and breathless, making running difficult as I struggled for oxygen.  Anyway we persevered. Often having to do interval runs instead of one big run.... but either way were were still running and feeling the benefits.

During Ali and Amy's holiday in Cornwall, they joined me and Mikey on a run.  Again the pace was a tad faster than I am used to, in fact I had to stop after only 4 minutes.  I thought it was due to the fact that we were chatting as we ran... but when uploading the run, I realised that it was because our running pace had been 10.5.  As the other three are the stronger runners, they kindly let me dictate the pace, etc, so after a short breather... 2mins we did another 4min run. This time at a more reasonable11.2 - which is still faster than my usual pace.  We finished with a 10 min jog at a similar pace.  It was really good fun being with other runners. I'd have liked to have done more running with them, but sadly it wasn't to be so.  I particularly enjoyed having more experienced runners to give me a few tips. =D 

Anyway, that's my running news.... who'da thunk I would still be doing this running malarkey? And who the hella woulda thunked I would ever be able to run 5k!

Wednesday 5 September 2012

August - A quick update

Its been a while since I blogged but that's because not much cycling has happened.  August was a rubbish month for my cycling!

I missed a couple of days whilst spending some time enjoying a trip to Bruge.... which was glorious and great fun.

A bike in Bruge
On our return, as usual the weather played its role in keeping me off the bike. It was either far too hot and muggy to ride, so I'd wait to go on an evening ride, but then get too engrossed in watching the Olympics. Then on every day off it would be absolutely bucketing it down with rain (and as I'd thrown my mudguards off in temper due to them rattling too much) so riding was postponed.

By the 19th of August I still hadn't ridden a bike..... Ooops!  On realising this I quickly grabbed my bike and did a 25miler.  Sadly, then the weather and a hideous week at work stopped me in my tracks again and only 2.5miles were ridden the following week, when we had a quick jaunt down to the beach when Ali and Amy arrived in Cornwall.

Thankfully their arrival injected some enthusiasm back and we did a fair bit of riding; a very WET ride to a cafe, a little jaunt out to christen Mikey's new Belgian jersey (his birthday pressie which finally made an appearance), and a ride to Mousehole, via Penzance where we had lunch in the park.

Anyway, by the end of the month I'd managed 6 rides.... and a grand total of 62.4miles.

Not the best of months for riding, but life and the weather really did get in the way. I can only hope that this month is better.