May 2013 Cycle Update

It’s been the month that the weather turned. It’s now summer! Got in many sunny dry rides this month, although mileage was down on last month due to tapering for the Torq Rough Ride this weekend. I had another great ride an Llandegla and my first trip back to Cannock since I broke my rib there. My bike packing trip around Shropshire went very well and taught me a lot about what I need to do on this sort of ride. Mostly that my tent is a bit heavy but I reckon would be great for one night winter trips. This trip also gave me material to do another video which I’m fairly pleased with it.

I have been training hard this month, getting back in the gym. I have been doing 3 weights session a week. A general leg strength session along with “pull” and “push” sessions for the upper body. On top of that I have been doing 2 sessions a week of sprints and threshold efforts on a static bike. These have not gone so well as the upright exercise bikes in my gym have awful saddles which force me to sit in a bad position. The saddles are too wide, so I perch on the front which then puts my knees to far forwards in relation to the peddles. I have been experiencing cycling related knee pain for the first time ever so I need to make an adjustment to this. I think I might give the recumbent static bikes a go instead. I’m on a 2 week break from the intervals at the moment but once back to it I’m considering doing a Tabata Interval session once a week and a threshold session once a week and see how that goes instead of the mixed sprint/threshold sessions I do twice a week currently.

I have continued to lose weight and I’m really starting to notice how different my body feels. It may sound strange but I actually feel lighter. I still have plenty of work to do but I’m certainly going in the right direction. Having the body composition assessment done was a real eye opener and just really interesting. I think regular 4-6 week trips back are going to give me a proper goal and focus. Hopefully I can use this increased accountability to push me forwards.

I haven’t had to do any fettling this month which is great, although the Revelations did have to go back to Loco again. The lock out controller got stuck in the locked position although the fork wasn’t locked. It turns out that the RCT3 damper had pretty much disintegrated and was in a thousand pieces. Fortunately Fishers decided to give me a warranty replacement although out of the warranty period so good on them. This meant it only cost the couriers backwards and forwards. It’s one of those situations where I felt that I was owed a replacement as although I had owned the fork for over a year, when the problem first presented it’s self I had only actually had about 7 months riding out of it. Of course they didn’t HAVE to do anything but they did which is great.

Looking forwards to the Rough Ride next weekend. It looks like I will be doing it on my own now as people have pulled out but in all honesty this is not to much of an issue for me as it gets rid of the dilemma I had had about doing it at my own speed or staying as a group. Now I can really just have at it and treat it like a proper personal time trial.