Gym'll Fix It!

A year of working too much, not riding, injuries, eating poorly, drinking lots, DIY excuses and, well, if I'm honest, a smidgen of laziness, have resulted in my weight creeping up. I'm now a full 1 stone/14lbs/6.3kg (you have to be multilingual sometimes when writing blogs!) heavier than I was last November.

Now I'm not weight obsessed or anything and I've never been what you'd call svelte, but 14lbs is a lot in a year, and more importantly, I'm starting to feel it when I exercise. That's when I know something has to be done.

So thanks to the inclement weather, resulting in my only two rides of the latter half of the year being cut short, and there seemingly being no end to the current cold snap, I've joined a gym.

It's a Virgin Active gym near work and part of their cunning motivational strategy is the extortionate monthly membership fee they charge - you have to go every other day to get your money's worth. But so far it has been worth it. In six weeks I've been 8 times (not quite financially worth it but it's a good start), I've got a training programme, I've been to a couple of classes and I've been swimming for the first time in about 4 years. And the best part about all of this is I'm actually still enjoying going to the gym! Now there's something I thought I'd never say...

"30 in 30" Days of Rain

This looks like it could possibly be the wettest 30 in 30 ever, it seems determined to rain every day. But so far it hasn't put me off (which has surprised even me), and I have been riding - despite a few setbacks.

Thursday, Day 2 and the rain was hammering down. Undeterred, I donned my trusty rain jacket and overshoes and set off. The flooding was so bad in the lane that I couldn't see the perfectly sized divot in the middle of the road and seconds later my rear tyre was flat with a pinch puncture. I swapped the tube but my motivation had gone. I stood on the road side trying to decide whether to carry on - my planned route was an out and back that would take me up to 12 miles away from home, and now having no spare tube and a rather soft rear tyre that would be prone to more pinching. I reminded myself why I had embarked on another 30 in 30 and jumped back on my bike to explore some lanes closer to home, just in case. So, 1h22m and 17 road miles completed.

Day 3 - a simple hour on the turbo trainer. Boring, but necessary due to work commitments. I had a rather lovely pint of Bombardier at the Mulberry Bush at a leaving do for some work colleagues. So far so good on the alcohol front then.

Day 4 - more rain! (If this carries on, I'm selling the bikes and building a flamin' ark!) Yet again the weather was testing my resolve with heavy showers throughout the day. Still, I've just put the original forks back on the Surly 1x1 and it's been years since I rode a rigid mountain bike so it gave me the little kick I needed to get out there and explore for a bit - 1hr10m and 10 miles in the rain and mud. It'll do.

Totals so far - 5h17m, 42 road miles, 10 miles off-road.

The New Regime

Things never go as planned do they? Originally I'd planned to kick off another "30 in 30" at the start of September using the momentum from my holiday - adding in a healthy eating plan, some weight loss and cutting back on my alcohol intake.

Obviously, the start to this was delayed due to various DIY set backs with my house again: the boiler still isn't working (that's 5 weeks without hot water); I've changed the upstairs plan and can't find lights so the electrician has been postponed; my hoover has broken and to top it all off now a fuse has blown in the fuse board so I don't have any downstairs lighting (just as the nights are drawing in). Owning a house really sucks sometimes.

So there was no time for riding on Monday and Tuesday but finally yesterday I managed to squeeze in my first ride and start my Autumn "30 in 30". And boy oh boy, is it Autumn! The first 10 minutes of the ride were met with strong winds and a heavy shower. It's very unusual for me to actually start a ride in the rain, I normally wait until it stops. So this shows a new found tenacity and enthusiasm for riding that I haven't had for some time. (It's also a good start to what could be a very wet and miserable winter.)

So, Day 1 - 1hr45m, 25 miles.
I think I might also start keeping a mileage and hours ridden log, just for a bit of motivation...

Turbo-tastic

Totally ran out of time today, I really don't know where the day went. It was dark before I knew what was happening! Still, with the urge to ride still strong, I popped down to the shed and dragged my surly Cross-Check up to the 3rd floor, stepped over the various power tools blocking the spare room doorway, pushed paint tins, planks and architrave to the edges of the room, and set up the turbo trainer on the nail infested floor boards.

iPod now recharged, I settled into a good steady hour of leg spinning. Legs felt fine, but I had that 'bruised backside' feeling again. You know, for all the years I've been riding, if I take a few weeks off I always get this after my first ride. You'd have thought I (or rather my backside) would be use to this by now, but no, I can guarantee it every time.

Feeling good though and looking forward to my next ride. Bring it on!

It's NOT the 2nd of October!

It's not, really it isn't, and I'll tell you why - because over the last few weeks my motivation to ride bikes has been lacking to say the least. So I'd decided that I was going to take things easy in September, just take a step back from riding, racing and decorating and get back in the saddle in October.
Well, I'm not very good at keeping track of time - I find that happens working shifts. I rarely know what day it is and weekends don't mean a thing, it's either a work day or a day off, nothing else registers - so on Monday I was convinced it was still September and that riding would start Tuesday. Sadly, Monday evening I was informed that it actually was October already and therefore I'd missed the boat. Damn!
Still, determined that my vigour for riding bikes would return at the start of the new month, I declared Monday null and void, and Tuesday as the 1st of October.
And so today I went out for my first ride in, well, I can't remember how long it's been, that's how long it's been! I dusted down my Surly cross-check, a trusty steed that has so far been neglected this year; She didn't hold it against me however and we were soon cruising along the Hertfordshire lanes like best friends again, Old Faithful never missing a gear change.
The weather then took a turn for the worse but I didn't care. I was wearing my new Endura Air Defence jacket, that may well become the Old Faithful of my wardrobe this winter - we got a lot of miles to do together guys!