Swim

Went back to the little pool at La Fitness and did about 20 minutes swimming at lunchtime

Bike - 60K

Went out with SBR for their Sunday morning ride, about 10 of us today.

Interesting ride, quite relaxed for the first hour or so. Went up a huge hill, and my legs were very strong, I was easily 2nd to the top, not that it's a race, but it still felt good.

Coming back, Martin from the shop was late for work, so the pace picked up. I couldn't maintain the 40kph they were doing today btween Dorney and Eton Wick, which was disappointing. I was close though at around 37kph.

Distance - 64.33K
Time - 2.21.02
Avg - 27.37

(route was Eton,Eton Wick, Maidenhead, Marlow, and back a similar way)

Swim

In a stroke of luck, the office I'm working at has free membership of a gym round the corner.
Went there today at lunchtime (LA Fitness) and got inducted.
They have a 15M pool, and I managed approximately 30 lengths before running out of time.
They provide towels and shampoo, so I will hopefully find it easy to get some swimming training done there.

Run

[geek note - using lynx to write this entry]
Another cold dry night, so went straight out
after work for another 3 mile Honda run.
Again, this was not a time trial, so took it
quite easy.

Time 23.11
Average HR - 157

That's still a really good time, and I wasn't
particularly tired at the end. My only concern
is a bit of a dodgy knee.

Run

First run in quite a while - did the usual Honda as I am working now and getting back to Windsor for a 7.15pm start with the Datchet Dashers is going to be difficult for a while.

Took my Polar, but it seemed not to work on the way out. The return 1.5 miles was timed like this:

Time 11.41
Average HR - 157

I was actually deliberately going slow, so this was quite a pleasing result.

Bike

Went out with SBR, and though there were only 6 of us, managed ~4 punctures between us. Witnessed a bike going right into a big pothole and both tubes getting punctured. The route was out around the A308 and down the A330 too along some of my Route 3.

Distance: 52.18
Time: 1.51.27
Average: 28.1
Max - well, this isn't really right, is it? 76.47

This compares in an interesting way to my solo rides, the average speed is slower. I think there are some fast sections where I struggle, then the group slows down for a bit. When alone I'm more consistent on the effort.

Equipment

I've been keeping my mountain bike at the side of the house, and noticed this morning that it was gone. It cost £109 a few years ago, but it had lights fitted, and my D lock too. Luckily I removed the speedo only last week.

Will need a 'new' mountain bike now :-(

Bike

Due to impending return to work (next Monday) today was my last chance for a midday/midweek ride. So even though I still have a bit of a cough, I had another go at route 3.

Distance: 42.65
Time: 1.28.36
Averge: 28.91
Max: 46.02

So I even beat my previous time. I had the usual slow start mostly into the wind up past Windsor Great Park. Things improved, and I managed to keep above 40kph between the two cattle grids of Dorney and Eton Wick for a nice quick finish.

Health

My cold went to my chest, and I've done some quite depressing coughing. I went to the doctor and the pain in my ribs he says was probably me straining muscles when I coughed.

So I'm now sitting around waiting to get better, not able to do any decent exercise, which is very frustrating.

Got a confirmation email though, from Humanrace telling me I've been accepted into the Eton Supersprint on 15th May.

Swim

Feeling a lot better today.

Went to Windsor Leisure Pool with the kids and rejoined the gym (4 months for the price of 3). Didn't actually use the gym, but had a bit of a swim, around 10 lengths. The upper front part of my leg (must learn the names of these things, quads I think) began to hurt a little so even though I was doing quite well considering my absense from the water, I decided to stop.

Fitness

Completely wasted today, coughing and sneezing and suffering odd temperatures. Stayed indoors all day and fell asleep a couple of times.

Yesterday I know I had a cold, and I'm wondering if the cycle made it worse, or whether I'd have felt this way anyway.

Bike - Computer

Attached my bicycle computer to the Ridley (it's been on my old mountain bike up till now). It a wireless model from VDO called a Cytec C10+. Picture here. The manual says that with my wheels (700X23C) I should program the circumference size as 2133mm, but I measured it as 2120mm, so I'm using that.

Decided that a time of around two hours for 26 miles is a bit on the slow side. Went on the same route as Wednesday (26.5 miles according to Autoroute) and really tried to push harder.

Stats:
Trip - 42.48km
Time - 1.30.02
Avs - 28.34
Max - 54.49

So my trip computer and Autoroute are roughly in agreement (42.48 *.62 = 26.34), which is nice. Only really tried to go fast at one place, down an incline, and got that pretty fast speed.

Bike

Went for a ride around 11am even though my knees are feeling a bit dodgy.

Looked like a nice bright day, but when I got out there realised it was really quite windy, and somehow when you're cycling the wind always manages to be against you.

Here's the route.

It's only 26.5 miles, but took nearly 2 hours - I'm blaming the wind, and the stop for a phone call from BP about a job.

Run

Honda run tonight at about 6.30p; this is of course pretty much exactly 3 miles. Took my Polar heart rate monitor and just carried it in my hand (strap broken of course)

Stats here:

Time: 21.51
Average HR: 161
Calories - 312l

So, even though I didn't quite expect it - that's the fastest time so far. Actually met another runner just by Honda at the half way stage (which I times at 11 minutes) and followed him back, maybe that kept my pace higher than usual. Remember, I started off doing this in 26 minutes.

Bike

Went out at 9am with SBR in Windsor. Took Jonathan too as he was staying with us last night.

No one from the shop turned up, but we had about 8 riders and we headed out to Bourne End and back for quite a fast 2 hour cycle of probably around 35 miles. One big hill which I managed better than I have done in the past.

Got a flat tyre just as we were approaching the shop - my first one - it was a small piece of glass. Replaced the tube with a bit of help from Bruce in the shop and came back home.

Run

Last night went for my usual Honda run. It was quite mild at 6.15 pm. Did the whole distance without stopping and can now do it pretty comfprtably in 22-23 minutes. Must get my Polar watch strap fixed so I can time myself better.

Day One

Well, not really day one, as I started training in August of last year, but it's day one of the blog.

Today I went for a cycle. Went into Windsor and bought a new pump (Truflo HPX3) for £19.99. It slides under the bar and fits with no physical changes to the bike, so is really easy to take off/transfer to another bike. Used it to put some pressure into my tyres, as they were a bit flat never having been pumped since I bought the bike.

Rode up through Windsor onto the Bracknell road and the round Windsor Great Park, out the Virginia water exit and down through Egham/Runnymede/Old Windsor and home. The last leg took about 70 minutes, it was moderately windy.

Run

Honda run in the evening. not too cold even at 8.30pm.

Time - 22.12