Weekly summary

So, summary for the past week;

Starting last Monday (yes, ignore the time between my last post and then. I don't think much happened anyway), it's been a busy week with many things. Work has been a bit mental as of late, with long enough days going on, along with some weekend work which is slowing down some of the training hours but it's for the best in the long run :D I've been a bit relaxed as regards the running lately, but getting out for one or two sessions and I'm going fine in those, so I'm not going to push it too much.

For the cycling, I've covered around 200 km in the last 7 days. Starting on Monday, 90 km into Munich, back out, then looping around to Dachau and hammering it home. OK, so I use hammering a bit loosely. I hammered for a while and then crawled the last 5 km home :D Easy enough spin on Wednesday for 20 km  towards Munich and then back along a forest path. This bit was so much fun. It was about 10 km along it, right beside the river, which was very cool. My shoes, shorts, and bike got ruined cos of all the crap everywhere, but still! I was only doing about 30 km/hr on it, but it felt so fast, probably due to the rapidly changing surroundings. It's helped to make my mind up on doing some MTBing or cyclocross later on in the year. Probably the former so I can use it for snowy/icy commutes from Munich to Garching next Winter/Spring.

Friday evening I had planned an easy enough cycle on a new road, but once I got onto it, I found that I was holding above 30 km/hr with no hastle and getting up to 35 with just a little bit of effort. So that turned into a 23 km TT, more or less. There were a few spots to stop, roundabouts and towns. It was a lot of fun, though, and something I'm planning on doing more regularly. Average speed of 29 km/hr, which is my highest average speed for a spin. It would be a lot higher if it weren't for the stopping (requiring slowing down first and accelerating after). My legs were in bits after it, keeping above 30 on the last few kms required getting out of the saddle, hammering it and then letting the speed slow down again.

Which brings me to today. I had planned on upping my 90 km spin to above 100 this weekend, but it ended up not happening. I went into work to get a bit of a start on the two weeks ahead. I have a presentation to make on my work of the past five months on the 11th June, so that's taking priority for the moment. I did get out this evening, though, with a rough plan for something between 40 and 70 km. I ended up doing just the 40, my legs were on the edge of giving out after 15! Once I got home, I figured I probably could have done to full distance, but it's probably best that I give myself some recovery time. There's a four day weekend this weekend so one of those days will be dedicated to a long spin. Hopefully I might get my new bike by then as well, which would be very nice :)

I've ordered my bag for my planned light tours later on in the year. It's an in-sy rucksack which has a saddle attachment bar, so that should work well with the road bike. Since it's got a 16 L capacity, I reckon I'd be alright without a handlebar bag (I'm only planning on 3-4 days of a trip each time) so aerobars are starting to tickle my fancy instead. They should take at least a bit of the sting out of a 220 km trip. So they're now on the list. Yes, there is a list. Yes, it is long. Shhh....

However, I feel alright about spending a little more these days since my mate just bought a new shiny Anschutz selected barrel, with stock, sights and, I think, a Gemini buttplate. I'm so allowed to slap on 53 quid worth of aerobars onto the bike! And a GPS with European maps. And possibly buy new shoes and pedals as my current ones are feeling a bit tight after long spins.... Again, shh....

Anyway, that's about it. More during the week, if I'm awake enough to post!

Weekly summary

This week was better. I'm starting to head in the right direction, at least. I got out for something every day I was here, apart from Friday.

So, may as well crack into the numbers;

Distances;
Saddle; 45 km
Commute; 19 km
Run; 12 km

Times;
Saddle; 1 hr, 45 mins
Commute; 1 hr
Run; 1 hr 5 mins

Monday; Ireland
Tuesday; Travelling
Wednesday; Commute
Run, 5 km, 20 mins
Thursday; Commute
Saddle, 20 km, 45 mins
Friday; Commute
Saturday; Run, 7km, 45 mins.
Sunday; Saddle, 25 km, 1 hr

OK, so, the story with the running on Saturday... I was going well enough, keeping my normal slow crap pace, when my right knee cramped up. I'm not sure if it was a tendon or ligament, but something cramped and wouldn't straighten out for love nor stretching. I probably spent a good 15 mins of that run trying to stretch it out and eventually got bored and just ran home slowly on it.

I was unsure of whether or not it would turn out to be bad news, but said I'd give the bike a go today. Fortunately, the movement seems to have loosened it up, which is good. I went north again, towards my favourite 12% sprint uphill. Decided to cut my losses once I got to the top (one go this time, I'm happy :) ) and turned around for home.

On the way down, I topped out at 48.6 km/hr, which, by my rough calculations and crude assumption of a wheel diameter of 700mm, gives a max cadence of around 140 rpm. Which I find kinda impressive. Now, I was gripping the handlebars to pull myself back down, cos I have terrible technique so I bounce up and down, but still! I think I can do about 100 comfortably (35 km/hr), which isn't too bad. That'd be my normal tipping along pace, which bodes well for further training.

I was wondering during the week why my weight has been so reluctant to drop that much (currently at 62, which is a bit over my target (59/60). However, a quick thought to what I was doing last Summer helps; each week I was doing at least 150 km, including 100 km of commuting. The numbers are starting to come back up, but it won't be till I get my bike with gears that I extend the distances. I'm quite conscious of overtraining on the fixie; knee damage is not where I want to be.

Finally, a piece of news; I got in contact with a rifle club in the town over from here, and I'm heading out there this Friday to have a look at the facilities and see if they like me.. Whoever gets assigned to showing me around will have the misfortune of experiencing my oh-so-wonderful German. Which will be interesting :P I'm looking forward to it. I've been out of it for far too long at this point. Comebacks always have worked well for me, though...

Weekly Summary

Yeah, this week kinda sucked so far as getting anything done was concerned :D Last weekend knackered me out, so I wasn't on form for most of this week; a combination of stiff legs and being generally tired didn't help. Also, I gave a little more focus to work this week, which ate into the daylight available. And no, the lights still haven't arrived. Great deal or not, I know one shop I won't be going back to for some time...

Unfortunately, I didn't get in any running this week. The legs just weren't up to it. This means that I'm going to have a tough time getting going on it again next week. That said, the time off could be good for me, and it's not like I've just been sitting around. Total saddle time for the week was two hours, distance 40 km.

The week culminated in a 15 km cycle on Friday morning, which turned into a hammerfest once I got outside Garching. It was basically a straight run through Ismanning and back. Almost totally flat, just one lump over a bridge and that was about it. On the way back, I kept the speed above 30 km/hr, topping out at around 38. I haven't gotten the rhythm quite right in a while to get a faster pace than this. As a test, I tried really going for it on a one km stretch when I was close to home. Kept it above 35 all the way through it, which I was happy with. Now it's just doing a few of these together for an hour...

Next week shall be better. Next week is always better :D

Weekly summary

Right, round two of this.

The week overall hasn't been great. Kilometerage has been down quite a bit, as has overall time. Running especially has suffered this week, I've not been able to get out due to being tired and generally lacking the fitness for it. One short interval session on Tuesday and a 6km run that I suffered through on Thursday were all I could do.

For cycling, things were a little better. I had to cut short a session on Wednesday due to it being dark and STILL not having lights. Todays was pretty decent, though. Around 30 km, all on the fixie. I got in some slight climbs as well, such as this one;


Fortunately, this one wasn't too long, though pulling up it on the fixie was quite difficult. It was made more so by the fact that I decided to cycle down it on the other side and then back up again... Funnily enough, the speed limit wasn't an issue.

So, overall stats;

Times
Saddle; two and a half hours
Commute; hour and a half
Run; one hour

Distances
Saddle; 40ish km (should really have written it down before I reset the computer)
Commute; 30ish (again, should have checked)
Run; 10km ( :( )

These are really approximate, I need to start writing stuff down...

Finally, as has been promised for some time, pics of the new bike, as taken today.



Also from today, an indication of how far into the middle of nowhere one can get, while still being within 10km of a town...


That's about it for now, I think. I'll hopefully have some more stuff during the week, though I'm heading home for a few days over Easter, so the volume will be much reduced. I'll hopefully still get out for a decent spin and run, but I don't have that many days. My legs are a bit tight at the moment from today, but hopefully recovery won't take too long... Bis nachher!

Weekly summary

Since my training has more or less kicked off, I won't be blogging every single session. That would just get boring and tedious for all of us. Instead, there will be highlights, kit reviews and weekly summaries, probably on a Sunday.

So, to get going; this weeks training started on Thursday evening; hence the low numbers. Most of the times and distances are fairly approximate, but should give a good idea of how things are going.

Times:
Saddle: two hours
Commute (bike)*: one hour
Run: one hour

Distances:
Saddle: 50 km
Commute: 20 km
Run: 14 km

*Commute times and distances are in addition to the 'saddle' numbers, just not focussed in any way and tipping along at a fairly handy pace.

To add to this, I spent yesterday and today in the saddle with the fixed cog on. It's a very different experience compared with freewheel bikes. When you try to coast you get a not so subtle reminder that this is a no-no by the pedals forcing your feet around. Thank ceiling cat for clipless pedals! Lots of fun, though, especially when in a proper sprint. Doing almost 50 km/hr on the flat with the wind behind me and knowing that I really have to keep pedalling or risk snotting myself horribly is terrifying at the time, but fantastic to look back at. I'm sold on the fixie :)

The new road bike is still in the works, but is gonna wait another few weeks 'til I get up enough kms to justify it and also to get the legs back into the swing of things.

Outlook for the coming week; try to get some more distance in on the bike and feet, push on for intervals in both. Also, I'll be making contact with a rifle club so we'll see what comes of that. I hope my time management has improved since the last time I tried to do more than one thing at a time...