Back on Track!

 

Yes, I'm back on track, I did 137 miles in June, my target is 130. It should have been more as I was due to go out for a ride with Haribo Joe today but my gout as flared up again, so I've had to sit and watch the Tour de France.

 

This time last year I had only done 420 miles, so nearly double that so far this year.

 

A lot of the miles this month are due to the new job which I can cycle to. It's only 4.5 miles, but they all count.

I take the shortest route in the morning, but I will do different routes home taking in a hill or two, or do some sprintervals training.

 

Sprintervals or HIIT training involves cycling hard out for a short set time period and then easing off for a rest period. I keep it simple by doing a minute on and a minute off, but you can vary it.

The main reasons I do them is to get me used to cycling faster, and also it burns more calories than steady cycling.

 

This month I need to get in some more hills, because at the end of the month I'm doing The Wiggle Mega Meon Sportive with Haribo Joe and my brother Pete. We're doing the "short" course which is only 55 miles, which will be my longest ride, but there will be 3000 feet of climbing, such fun.

 

 



May X!

May is the first month that I haven't hit my monthly of 130 miles. (hence not updating this blog earlier in the month)

The main reason was my swollen knee which meant I couldn't really cycle for three weekends.

On a plus note my average monthly distance is still over the 130 mile mark.

June has started off slowly, camping trips and other excuses, but I have started a new job which I can cycle to.
It is 6 miles each way, so far I have cycled in twice this week, a great way to start and finish the day.

DIY
I've had a strange knocking noise from somewhere on the bike, so I decided to do a bit of maintenance.
I started with the obvious and cleaned and greased my bottom bracket and pedals, which didn't sort it out.
So after a bit of research I tightened every bolt I could find, which worked. I think the noise was from either the seat post or the headset.

Whatever it was I'm glad I did the basic maintenance, it saved me a few quid and made a difference to the feel of the bike.

I do feel sorry for bike shops because I have little or no experience, but after a few hours on YouTube I managed to do a pretty good job.

Bloody Typical!

Amazing weather for a Bank Holiday weekend and I was laid up with a sore knee.
Read about my sore knee here.

To make matters worse, I wake up Tuesday morning to the sound of rain, but hardly any pain in my knee.
The stretches and foam roller have worked.

Gutted that I missed out on a few rides, and also I couldn't do much with my family because of the pain.
But pleased that the pain is over.

What have I learnt?

I want to do more and more cycling, and to do this I need to look after my body, especially as I've got previous rugby injuries to deal with.
Therefore I will be starting a stretching and strengthening program to try to prevent the injuries, rather than fixing them when they happen.
The main focus will be building up my core strength and my stabilizing muscles in my ankles, knees and hips, I've got a wobble board somewhere in my shed.

Any tips, advice or good websites to check out will always be welcome.

My New Best Friend!

This is a picture of my new foam roller I got from Absolute Running in Gosport.

Unleash Hell

You lie on it in all different positions and roll backwards and forwards on it, and when you find a particularly painful spot, you rock back and forwards on that spot.
Those lumps are designed to inflict even more pain.
I'm reliably informed that it is meant to hurt a lot.

It has worked though, my hip/knee feels a lot better.

Unfortunately, I've been hobbling around so much that my ankle is a mess now.

I'm going to try going for an easy bike ride soon as I'm bored of being injured.

Spot The Difference?

This is meant to show how swollen my left knee is, which has hampered my cycling this week.

It is an old condition relating to my iliotibial band which pulls my knee cap off to one-side.
I also twisted my pelvis many years ago playing rugby, so there are lots of issues.
Being a driving instructor doesn't help either as I'm stuck in one position for too long.

It happens quite often, but usually I hobble upstairs, do a couple of stretches and its right by the morning.
Other times cycling seems to help loosen everything up.

But not this time!
Nothing seems to be working.
At the weekend it was so difficult to get comfortable at all, day or night, that when I was lying on the floor doing some stretches, I must have got comfortable because I fell asleep under a table.

The main problem is that I'm reactive when it comes to my stretching, only starting when I feel the pain.
As I'm trying to do more and more cycling it needs to become part of my training regime to try to prevent the problems, rather than just cure them.
I know it will save me a lot of time and pain.

I've heard about rollers that you lie on, but I've never used one. Do they work, which one is best?

April - tick!

4th month in a row hitting my monthly target of 130 miles. I've just gone over 600 miles for the year. This time last year I had only done 263 miles.

Highlights of the month were completing the Meon Valley Riser in under 4 hours 10 which was the bronze standard. You can read the write up here.

The second highlight was making it up Harvesting Lane, which goes up Butser Hill. I had to walk up it during The Riser, so it was great to be able to tackle it again and beat it. Check it out here.

The third highlight was getting Haribo Joe back out on his bike, first time since his operation, it's good to have him back.

I'm doing well with my cycling goals, but my weight loss has slowed down a bit. But I'm refocused on that part as I know losing the weight will help with those hills. I like to think that I eat a pretty healthy diet, fresh veg etc, but portion size is still my problem.

No Walking This Time!

Just made it up Harvesting Lane, which goes up Butser Hill.

It is the hill I had to walk up on The Riser at the start of the month.

According to Strava it is over 20% at parts.

It was a lovely ride, took my time and enjoyed the scenery, instead of worrying about times.
Ended up doing a reasonable time..

Here are a couple of before and after shots.



Made it!

Evil!

And here's the Strava bit.