February - Tick!

Hit my monthly goal again!

Did some nice rides this month.

Fecking Hills
This is a new route I dreamt up, up and over Portsdown Hill 5 times.
Hills are a real problem for me at the moment due to my weight, so I need to work at them.
The weight helps coming down though.

Sibling Rivalry
Went out for a nice ride with Pete, my older brother, who does a lot more cycling than me.
It was good because I pushed myself that little bit more than if I had been on my own to try to beat him.
I now know that I can, and need to, push myself harder to keep improving!
I do think he was being polite though, telling me he was just as tired as I was.

Round the Harbours
Doing this ride in under 3 hours was one of my goals for the year. I did it in 2 hours 48.
Here's the full write up.


So, overall pleased with the month.
Got my next weigh-in in a couple of weeks.
Not sure what to expect.
I think I've been good with my eating, but haven't been using MyFitnessPal as much as I should, starting again today.
I think I need to get some scales to get more regular feedback, so I can look at changing things if need be.

Thanks for reading.
If you're on a similar journey, let me know how you're getting on.

First Goal Hit!

The Round the Harbours Ride is a BHF charity ride that I've done for the last three years, and raised a bit of money for a good cause.

It is a nice 32 mile route covering Fareham, Gosport, Southsea, Havant and a trip over Portsdown Hill.

You have to get the Gosport ferry, which is quite special, but can effect your time if you just miss one.

You can get the Hayling ferry over to Hayling Island and go up the Hayling Billy, which is an old railway track, but not suitable for road tyres. The alternative route is up the Eastern Road

I'm not able to do it again this year as it clashes with a camping trip.

In 2010 I did a bit of training and got round in 3 hours 30.
In 2011, with less training I struggled round in 3 hours 48.
Last year I did it with Joe in 3 hours 13. My target had been 3:12 but I had to get my bike fixed half way round.

This year one of my goals was to get round in under 3 hours.

Today I went round in 2 hours 48!

Well chuffed!

A Moment Of Madness?

Is it possible to cycle from London to Brussels?

I'll let you know in July.

I've signed up for a charity bike ride "Waterloo to Waterloo" at the end of June.

Waterloo to Waterloo bike ride

It's about 70 miles a day over 3 days.

It's to raise money for British Heart Foundation which is a great cause. I will be setting up a page so you can sponsor me, watch this space.

If you are a captain of industry, and looking to raise your company's profile, we will be looking for sponsors, let me know and I'll get someone to give you a call.

Fort Nelson PR!

Just set a new PR on my Fort Nelson route, 56:24!

The Fort Nelson route is the first ride I did with Joe, 25th February 2012, at the start of my journey from fat to fit. It is where the photo of me sitting down was taken. It would have been great to do the ride again with Joe this month, and get him to take another photo to see how much I've changed shape, but Joe is in hospital at the moment and will be off the bike for a day or two!

My time for the first ride was 1 hour 22, and that is just cycling time, the total time was over 1 hour 45. I didn't realise I spent so long recovering at the top of the hill.

I am still amazed about how far I've come. A year ago I had to spend 20 minutes at the top of a hill recovering, now 12 miles is a short ride. I still struggle up the hill, but now I can keep going when I get to the top.

Last year I chose this route as our first ride as I knew Joe was cycling to and from work a couple of times a week so I wanted a route that he might find a bit of a challenge, so that he would be happy to be my cycling buddy.
He didn't find it as much of a challenge as I did, and I wasn't happy about this, which has motivated me to work harder at getting fitter and losing weight so I could keep up with him.
I need to thank Joe for sticking with me, I couldn't have done what I've done with out his support.
Hope he gets well soon.

One of my targets this year is to get the time under 55 minutes.
Before today my best time was 58 minutes, so I'm pleased with today's time, but still got a lot of work to do!

January - tick!

A good start to the year, monthly target hit, despite not be able to go out on longer rides for two weekends due to weather and work.

Top Tip - share your goals and targets with someone!

Writing this blog forced me to do an extra ride to hit the target, I didn't want to let you know that I had missed the target by 11 miles.

I did a 25 and a 30 mile ride but to be ready for the Meon Riser I need to up the mileage.
I need to do a couple of 35-40 mile rides this month, and then push it to over 40 miles next month, plus a lot of hills.

Come and join me......

I've just signed up for the Meon Valley Riser bike ride.  www.meonvalleyriser.co.uk/

I was planning to do it with Haribo Joe. but unfortunately Joe won't be able to make it this year.

So I was wondering if anyone else is interested in joining me for a "pleaseant" Sunday morning ride around the beautiful Meon Valey on April 7th.

Come on, don't be shy.

Goals For 2013

Weight

"At the end of 2013 I weigh less than 99kg.
This will help me get more out of my cycling.
I have got to this weight by cycling more than last year and by eating healthy amounts of healthy food".

This is my "mission statement" for 2013.
It is important to write down your goals in the present tense as though you've already achieved them.
Also write down why you want to hit these goals and what you're going to do to hit them.
Then share them with someone.
Keep looking at the mission statement, ideally every day.
This process will help you achieve you goals, Google "goal setting" for more information.

99kg is a great target to aim for.
It's about 44lbs weight loss so less than the "1lb a week" that the experts recommend, so it will be achievable.

I've always known that should lose weight but it was never important enough for me to do anything about it.

Enjoying my cycling is important to me and I know the less I weigh the more I will enjoy it, so losing weight is now important to me.


Cycling

My average miles per month last year was 117. This year I'm going to aim for 130 miles a month.

Complete Meon Riser in bronze time.

Complete New Forest Rattler. Either go for silver time on shorter route or bronze on longer route.

Do the Fort Nelson route in less than 55 minutes. Current best 58:34. This is the first ride I did with Joe in 1 hour 22.

Cycle the Wight. Ride round the Isle of Wight. A nice 70 mile journey back in time.

Do the Sultan Bus Route in under an hour. It is a 15 mile route which I often do, my best time is 1:04.

I was planning to do the BHF Round the Harbours bike ride for the 4th year, and go under 3 hours, last years time was 3:12. However I've got other plans that weekend, but I will still do the route sometime this year.