Winter Training - Week 4

Week Ending - December 9th 2007

Weather wise Monday morning was perfect but I was still feeling the effects of the sore throat etc and although I got dressed ready to go out for a ride thought better of it as I was not feeling anything like 100%

Tuesday, a much duller and damp morning but I was feeling OK so it was down to the circuit to get some miles in with Jim and Alan. Brian Tadman and Bob Spencer also did a few laps with us but we were keeping up quite a strong tempo especially into the wind and they decided to ride at their own pace. Had a couple of fast sprints up the hill and both times I managed to beat Brian, that was a first, I cannot see Brian letting that happen again. Even got my heart rate up to 151 in the last one. Alan sure is the dark horse of our group, his fitness is building up fast and I am sure he will soon be giving us all an even harder time! Rode over 45 miles by the time I returned home.

A very wet and windy Wednesday greeted me but by 10:00am the clouds had cleared so I decided to go out for a ride. The forecast was for heavy showers so I decided to do some circuits of the Black Park 10 mile time trial course so that if the weather turned I could make a quick dash for home. Did almost 5 laps of the course and when less than a mile from home the heavens opened and I arrived home like a drowned rat. One good thing about the rain, it certainly washed all the muck off my bike so need to clean it today. Round trip was just over 51 miles in under 3 hours.

I go to Pilates Classes every Tuesday evening with Betty, being doing them for almost a year now and have felt the benefit. I now have some strong core muscles and also lots of other muscles I never knew existed. Its sure a good way to improve your body and results can be achieved by people of all ages and sizes. One downside, last night we exercised our outer thigh muscles, our buttock muscles and other muscles in the hip area and my legs certainly ached in these areas during the ride today.

Friday morning was bright and sunny but very windy too. Down to the circuit with the normal riders, 6 of us at one point. A steady ride, eight laps of "bit and bit" after we were well warmed up instigated by a confident Brian Tadman and in fact Brian did one more lap up front than the rest of us! 56 miles covered by the time I battled my way home against the wind, my average speed for this part of the ride was 11 mph. Pleased I reached my winter target of 150 miles this week.

Weekly Totals:- Miles:- 152.5 Time:- 9 hrs 4 mins 11 secs