Enduro Training Day 6

Today was very similar to the past week in terms of training: lots of exercise but a very poor diet.

Breakfast was not bad: rice krispies with semi-skimmed milk followed by hot muffin with peanut butter. But then the flapjack came out...

Martha, Lucy and I went out on our bikes for a couple of hours. We visited three parks and a nature reserve. I caught a grasshopper. The ride wasn't much of a challenge compared to those over the last few days, but all the miles count I guess.

Back at Lucy's and the day's healthy eating plans went straight out the window: chocolate birthday cake, crisps and lots of tea.

When I finally went back to the flat I did a little workout session:

80 push-ups, 70 tricep-dips, 80 sit-ups

Overhead Presses on the barbell [33kg]

Dumbell curls [15kg]

Then I was so hungry that I scoffed fishfingers with pasta and a red pepper. Then two bottles of beer while I watched Jenson win on the BBC iPlayer.

Oh well, I'm not sure how much benefit exercise is when my diet is so bad. My target for next week is definitely healthy eating!

Next Monthly meet

It's been agreed that the next monthly meet of the club will take place on the 11th August a week later than usual. Venue TBC.

Enduro Training Day 5 [late]

After a two egg omelette on wholemeal toast and an apple I did a mini-workout:

80 push-ups, 70 tricep-dips, and 75 sit-ups followed by some dumbell rows [23kg] and dumbell curls [15kg].

I had some oatcakes and hummus after this, followed by muesli and soy milk.

By midday I was bored, by about 1pm I was on the bike:

http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/Teece/8oqui5sq7f1klh44

During my ride I helped two pairs of lady cyclists in distress: I changed an inner tube for the first pair and then got my Allen keys out for the handlebars of another. Chaps, if you have any single mates advise them to go cycling on the Stratford Canal and take their tubes and tools!

I had my iPod with me and the following albums got played:

Neil Young - Harvest

Neil Young - After the Gold Rush

Neil Young - Zuma

John Fogerty - The Long Road Home

And then I switched over to my 'sports' playlist containing various upbeat hip hop, drum & bass and heavy metal to get me home. The most effective track being this:

After 37 miles, I felt extremely hungry, and, in the absence of flapjack, scoffed 3 veggie sausages, a yellow pepper and a head of broccoli.

Then, dudes, I came to join you at the Red Lion for two pints of lovely ale and to listen to terrible 80s tunes.

At home, Lucy and I tucked into cheese and biscuits, with another ale and a bag of crisps for me!

I'm going to be very fit and very fat at the same time. Is that possible?

Team B for the win!

Enduro Training Day 4

Martha's birthday today.

I had a reasonably healthy breakfast to start with: beans on wholemeal toast, an apple and a pint of water.

Then I cycled the 7.1 miles to Lucy's house:

http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/Teece/bk966f8gifds9gpd

The party was a picnic in the local park and involved games of rounders and croquet. I cycled there with 4 of the girls while the boring adults drove their cars. It was an ace afternoon and I consumed a long list of unhealthy foods including Maltesers, Pringles, mini sausages, crisps, cake, ice cream and jelly. I believe this is what Lance Armstrong used to eat before a Tour.

After the celebrations ended, I cycled home the long way via the canal and Canon Hill Park. It was a little over 12 miles and I kept a reasonable pace:

http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/Teece/1urds4puh0v6gd6p

I'd estimate 21+ miles total cycling for today.

At home, I did a mini-workout of 75 push-ups, 65 tricep-dips and 80 sit-ups. I then cleaned the bike before sitting down to a plate of chicken breast and cabbage, and an episode of Star Trek.

No beer on a Friday night, and no AMBS ride in the morning. What is the world coming to...?

Enduro Training Day 3

Didn't have much time for a ride today because I had to take Dad up to the hospital. So, after muesli, I managed to fit in an 8 mile blast around Moseley and Kings Heath:

http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/Teece/2f695vimqrot1gqa

I scoffed some cold beef sausage [protein, remember?] after the ride and chugged a pint of water. At my parents' I was treated to TWO jam scones and cups of tea. After I got back from the hospital and walking the dog with Mom, I finished off the hummus from yesterday with a wholemeal pitta.

Then I decided to do a little workout:

I did 75 push-ups, 65 tricep-dips and 80 sit-ups as a warm-up and then some squats [42kg] and curls [40kg] on the barbell. I felt a bit shaky after, but also felt pumped.

Next, I went to ASDA and bought loads of healthy food before making myself a tasty dinner of chicken breast and cabbage.

Am now enjoying my last cup of redbush tea before bed [it tastes weird without biscuits or flapjack!]

Enduro Training Day 2 [late]

Scoffed some muesli for brekkie and then cycled 3 miles to meet Lucy at the Horseshoes pub in Kings Heath. We cycled down to Dicken's Heath for a pot of tea and to slag the place off:

http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/Teece/71mrthkj3nac6vkq

From there, we got back on the canal and headed towards Lapworth. I needed to pull over for lemonade and peanuts at a pub because I'd ran out of breakfast by this point. Then we cycled the eight miles back to the car:

http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/Teece/7uskeok3qac8pni9

I then cycled the three miles home back to the flat. That's 22+ miles of cycling for me, albeit at a slow pace. Lucy is doing really well at riding and is proving to be really strong at keeping a steady rhythm over the miles.

Remembering Louise's advice from earlier in the week I decided to increase the protein intake today. Lunch was 200g of hummus [with pitta] and for dinner I got stuck into 4 beef sausages with a whole head of broccoli.

On the night, however, Lucy appeared on my doorstep with Inception on DVD and 3 bottles of real ale...

I drank two of the beers and put my feet up until bedtime!

Enduro Training Day 1

Sportstracker link for tonight's training ride:

http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/Teece/f048533h4ca7itjm

So chaps, we decided yesterday that we'd be entering the Forest of Dean Enduro race on the 25th of September - exactly 2 months away. I'm still not sure whether I'm going in as part of the AMBS team [I'd like to!] or as an individual, but one thing is for sure: I'm definitely doing it!

In an effort to not embarrass myself on the day, I thought I'd try to make more of an effort on the fitness front. Plus, as extra motivation, I've decided to keep you guys up to date with my progress via the blog.

Today, I set a new PB over a 15 mile road ride on the Halfords. Previous best was a 13.5 mph average speed. Today, it was up to 14.5 which is good progress, although I was very lucky with the traffic lights.

My diet was fairly crap but very tasty: one of Lucy's lovely picnics in Twycross Zoo involving ham and cheese, Wotsits and homemade flapjack. In the evening I stuck to pasta, chicken and broccoli...and a bottle of beer.

Current weight: 10st 7lbs.

Had a good chat with Louise, the lovely triathlete coach, on the phone tonight. She was telling me all about nutrition and how protein is more important for us guys than carbs! More chicken and less spuds for me then!

My personal history of Mountain Biking!

It’s late November 2010. I’m watching a YouTube video of an extremely hairy guy with a disordered beard sitting on a bicycle that I could never hope to afford. “Look ahead on the trails,” he tells me, and then proceeds to demonstrate this technique on his marvellously impressive mountain bike. The reason I’m watching Ed Oxley show YouTube how to ride a bike? Because in a few short weeks I’ll be going on a mountain biking day-out which will be my first true experience of riding off-road...

I’ve always had a bike. My first ride that didn’t have stabilisers was a BMX Panther in glorious black and chrome. My brother had one too, bought from a catalogue, and we used to ride them to my Nan’s house and back pretending to be motorcycle cops.

A few years, another BMX and a Raleigh Tomahawk later, I found myself riding a red road bike with gear-levers on the down tube and constant slow-punctures in both tyres. One Christmas, just after university, I was presented with a Universal hybrid with rigid forks but fairly knobbly tyres. It was at this point that I started taking cycling a little more seriously. I marked out a ten mile route for myself on the roads, then later a 15 mile route that incorporated a bit of canal work and the wildlife reserve at the back of Elmdon Park. The Universal  didn’t last long under that sort of beating and when the bottom bracket started to make snap, crackle and pop noises I promptly gave up. It was my girlfriend at the time, a much more dedicated road-cyclist than I, who took the dead Universal to a bike shop. They told her that the Universal wasn’t designed to go off-road and proceeded to sell her a ten-ton ‘full-suspension’ off-road bike made of big lumps of iron and a huge spring. It was called a Vertical Something-Or-Other. At the time, I thought this bike was fantastic and I took to the canals and parks with renewed vigour and a stop-watch. I had little idea what I was training for, really, just that I wanted to train...

 The Vertical Something-Or-Other lasted six years and I even used it to get to work. I never cleaned it. I never considered wearing a helmet.

Through the Cycle-to-Work scheme I was able to afford my first ever decent bike: a Halfords mountain bike with hydraulic disc brakes [what the hell are those?!] 100mm suspension at the front and an aluminium frame. I remember actually laughing out loud the first time I rode it, on the way home from Halfords, because I simply couldn’t believe how light it was and how everything on the bike just WORKED without any clanks, bangs or grinding. 

It was a work colleague, Deadly Dan, who suggested I might want to join something called the AMBS. I was promptly signed up to the Alvechurch Mountain Biking Society Facebook page which featured the profiles of 9 other blokes and a video of someone falling off his bike. Okay. What now? I was then informed that I was invited to take part in a day trip to Cannock Chase to do some proper mountain biking. Mountain biking? I thought a mountain bike was just a type of bicycle, I didn’t realise it was something you could ‘do’. Would I have to wear lycra?

Chats with Deadly Dan, Singletrack Magazine and YouTube helped to give me some idea of what I was in for. So in November I found myself watching Ed Oxley tell me to look ahead on the trails... 

In the 8 months since I joined the AMBS I have ridden almost every day, with very few exceptions. I enjoy riding with the lads: helping each other to come to grips with a TTF, helping with repairs, enjoying the victories over a particularly challenging section [Lurch!] or the joys of some astoundingly swift and sweeping trail [Pink Heifer!]; but I also crave the thrill of pitting myself against a stop-watch over some familiar terrain, or pointing my front wheel in a new direction to see what lies over the next hill. The freedom that mountain biking has given me is the thing I hold most precious about this sport. That, and the amount of flapjack I’m permitted to eat.

By Ant

This evenings ride

A good ride tonight with the other Alvechurch group 17 miles of a mixture of both road and the lickeys. A nice bunch and a steady pace plus they showed me a couple of new bits on the lickeys which are fun!

Welcome

Just a quick note to say welcome to the AMBS blog. Hopefully, this will become the place where members can let the rest of the group know what's on their minds, when/where they're next planning to ride and what shiny new bike part they are planning to buy. So come in, sit down and relax.