Ass in the saddle, miles in the legs

seamus

I like to start a new log when I manage to reach the goal of the previous one

I've let things slip a little over the last four weeks or so since the clubs spins ended. OK, I'll be honest, I've been running more than cycling because running is easier in ****ty weather and you can murder yourself in 45 minutes and feel like you're done for the day. 45 minutes on the bike is just about the point I get into the zone. And pulling on a pair of runners is easier than getting a bike out of the attic. I confess.

But then I ran a 10k two weeks ago (in 48:34 woo) and my legs haven't been right since, feckin knee is killing me any time I try to go out running again. So back on the bike as much as possible, take a bit of a break from running, as my knees always feel much better after a good long spin.

It also transpires that I'm to have a little person consume most of my time and resources, due to arrive some time in October. So I'm fairly sure that if I want to have time to get out on the bike, that time is now. Lofty dreams of becoming a Tour superhero by the age of 35 have been dashed, but I could at least maybe jump into a couple of A4 races by the end of the season.
For most of next year (and probably the year after that) I might get out on Sunday mornings, but any other time on the bike will need to be cleared six weeks in advance, in writing, and then be dependent on a random number generator as to whether I'll actually get out or not.
I also know that running is naturally more conducive to child-rearing, so if I'm going to go over to the dark side I may as well stay with the light side for as long as possible.

So the time is now to get my ass in that saddle and put miles in my legs while I still can

Goals I set out at the start of this year:

Do 3,000km on top of the commute - Not going too well. We're in week 18, and I've gotten out a total of ten times for 693.2 km. But now that the evenings are longer, I might look at doing some midweek spins. If running has taught me anything, it's that you don't need to spend 3 hours on the bike to get good training in. I could realistically kill myself in an hour. Even something as simple as a spin out to the Park, two or three hard laps and spin home. That gives me 21 weeks between now and the start of October to get 2,300km in. Doable, but unlikely. I'll stick with my original goal, but write off the last 3 months of the year, giving me a goal total of 2250, or about 1550km to do by October.

Sportives:
5 of them by September. I've already signed up for the Orwell one this Saturday. I'll sign up for the WW200 with the goal of doing a sub 8-hour rolling time. That would be an hour off my time last year, and probably the last time I'll do the WW200.
I'll probably also do the Martin Earley, as I enjoyed that one last year, and the SKT in August. I'm very much a last-minute signup for sportives, so I'll know which other ones I want to do about 2 weeks beforehand...

Weight:
Still hovering around 79kg, closer to 78kg some weeks...
I'm aiming to drop to 77kg by the start of June (and promptly put it all back on again at a stag at a German beer festival), and down to 75kg by the end of September. At that stage if I still see some wobbly bits I should realistically be looking at toning and such rather than losing more weight.

Running:
My goal here is the Dublin half marathon at the end of September. Would be a nice way to cap off this year. But my legs are not loving it just over the last two weeks, and I only started running to cross-train for cycling. So I'm going to go softly on this one and see a physio before I push through with, "Ah shure it'll be grand".

smacl

Congrats on the upcoming arrival! Also been doing a bit of running in the stormy evenings, there's something a bit mental about it which is good fun. Good luck with the new goals.

daragh_

Congrats Seamus

seamus

OK, a month later we're up to 1,006km (1,244 to go). Happy enough with the Orwell and Mount Leinster events @ 25ish and 27ish km/h respectively.

Felt a bit shagged though on the Mount Leinster, I didn't want to go back and finish it after the food stop. I've been two weeks off the bike now though so hopefully well rested for the WW200 this weekend.

Also managed a 5 mile (running) race in 37 minutes, which I'm happy enough with. Knee was still a bit screwed afterwards so I took a break. Next week I'll be a month off the running (and nearly two months off regular running) and then I'll start training slowly again, but if the knee does start giving me hassle, then I'm definitely going to a physio, I keep putting it off.
I don't know what the liklihood of the half marathon in September is I'm now 4 weeks behind on training and still not running for another week. I'll see how I feel in 3 months

Weight-wise, no change. Been one of those months with beer and barbeques and stags everywhere, so I should be happy there's no change really. Weight last week was 78.1kg. Aim now is down to 75kg by the 3rd week in August, 10 weeks. I have no major parties and plenty of weekend riding time between now and then, so it's doable but I need to keep myself on track.

seamus

...and another month. Happy enough with the WW200, decent enough time of 7:35, which was way above my goal of 8 hours. Conditions did lend themselves to a good time that day though.

Still looking around for another 2 sportives to hit my goal of five this year. The two best weekends in August (18th & 25th) I have other stuff on, so I need to find events outside of that. Maybe something towards the end of this month.

Combination of everything - bad weathers, things on at the weekend, etc etc etc, means I haven't been out for any kind of lengthy spin since the WW200. If I can get a break in the weather some evening this week I'll try get out for a hard 50km. 1,042km to do in about 3 months. Easily doable, if I get out on the bloody bike.

Have managed to get back to some form of regular running. Incredible how easy it is to fall out of the habit though and how much you have to push yourself back to doing 3 or 4 runs per week. For the training plan, I've decided to focus on a training plan geared towards developing speed over the short distance (5-10km) rather than endurance for things like half marathons.
Pains in my knee were definitely magnified by longer distances so my plan is to build up to the longer distances much more slowly - I won't do another 10k race till late this year or early next year.
Fingers crossed, that all seems to be going well. Some stiffness in the knee initially, but the pain I had before (ITBS I reckon) hasn't returned. I've been following the training plans more rigorously and running slowly when I'm told to instead of just hammering it for the whole session. Combined with proper stretching, a foam roller and odd exercises like one-legged squats, I'm running now without a knee brace and aside from the standard stiffness and pain after a session, my knee seems fine.

No change in weight. For no reason other than my inability to turn down temptation. No change in weight though is a win in my universe, especially when I haven't been out on the bike.
Think I can still possibly make the goal of 5kg by the 20th of August, but it will require Amish levels of personal restraint...

seamus

New game starts in 3 weeks. Never really managed to get motoring after July, only got in one good spin per month at most. Did a free vO2max test courtesy of leftism back in July, which really gave an insight in what I needed to tackle - less murdering myself and peaking my HR, more long and slow rides and threshold intervals.

I also realised that despite my 100km a week commuting, I had managed to turn it basically into zero effort. Stuck a HRM on for a week's commute and noticed that I was barely letting my HR go above 100bpm (even on the homeward bit). So I've turned commuting into micro-training; threshold intervals 3 evenings a week, Z1/Z2 fat burning for the rest of the time, and I really noticed a huge improvement after a couple of weeks. I only have limited Garmin data, but I seemed to gain about 1km/h average on the 100km spins/sportives when compared to the ones earlier in the year.

Running went well too, got into a groove with no injuries or weird aches. Managed a 5k in 20:44, putting me in spitting distance of running 5km in less than 20 minutes. I started running in August 2011 with the initial goal of clearing 5km in 30 mins and then 25 mins, so needless to say I'm delighted with that.

Then my beautiful daughter arrived on 17th October and everything is fncked up since. Managed to get out for 4 or 5 runs in the last two months, and one spin on the bike, which was leading out a beginner's group at 22km/h. When I went back to work though I managed to get the commuting-training back online, which has really helped get the head back in gear. I'll get out for at least one fast club spin this month, weather permitting. But when the missus has been up all night (literally) getting the child to sleep and leaving me alone so I can get up for work, it feels really cheeky to then take myself off for 4 hours on a Sunday morning and leave her holding the baby again. I'm sure once she starts sleeping at night I won't feel quite as bad about it.

It's also making me hmm and haw about signing up for the club league next year, but I'm sure when the child has some form of routine it'll be way easier to book some time out to go cycling.

Goal for the next 3 weeks is to just not to lose any significant level of fitness. I'm going a little crazy not getting out for good spins or runs, I'm convinced I can feel my legs becoming soft and pudgy

Summary:

650kms short of distance goal

5 sportives done, first two killed me, delighted with the last 3.

No major change in weight. Lost about 1kg over the first 2 weeks when baby came along, down to 77.5 or something. I reckon it's because many of those days involved breakfast in the morning, 12 cups of coffee and then toast before bed, but the missus helpfully remarked, "Maybe you've lost muscle tone"
Babies are not conducive to weight loss; "Will we spend the next 90 minutes chopping, cooking, serving, eating & cleaning, or will we bung a pile of stuff in the oven/ring the takeaway?"

Didn't manage the half marathon run. I aimed for the 5k instead, I'll go for a half marathon sometime next year. Like cycling, I've something of an upper limit on time before I get totally browned off. I prefer short and quick over long and slow (ooh matron). At some stage I might do a full marathon, but I think the two-hours-ish timescale of a half marathon will be about the most I'll do on any kind of regular basis.

There will be new goals for next year. No. 1; get some sleep.

daragh_

seamus wrote: »

Then my beautiful daughter arrived on 17th October and everything is fncked up since.

Congrats!

You should do the league. Few hours on a weeknight is easier to manage than half a day at the weekend!

ROK ON

Seamus - as a father to three kids I can sympathise as to how difficult it is to get out on a cycle once they arrive.

Some free advice from 8 years of experience.
(1) They get more time consuming, not less.

(2) If you dont get into a regular routine of heading out on the bike at the weekend you never will. Now when I say regular plan to head out for say three hours every weekend. Circumstances may mean that you don't make it (lack of sleep, sick kid, grumpy partner). However c'est la vie. It is important to have it in the diary nonetheless for you and your partner.

(3) Once a kid arrives it is vitally important IMHO to have a thing that you do as a parent for yourself. A selfish thing. Its yours and no one else's. That might be cycling, it could be pole dancing - it dont matter. Kids take over - for sanity sake have a thing that you do just for you. Helps recharge the batterers. What goes around comes around - your partner also should have a thing for her.

Tuppence worth. Enjoy the bike when you get out.

Ryder

ROK ON wrote: »

Seamus - as a father to three kids I can sympathise as to how difficult it is to get out on a cycle once they arrive.

Some free advice from 8 years of experience.
(1) They get more time consuming, not less.

(2) If you dont get into a regular routine of heading out on the bike at the weekend you never will. Now when I say regular plan to head out for say three hours every weekend. Circumstances may mean that you don't make it (lack of sleep, sick kid, grumpy partner). However c'est la vie. It is important to have it in the diary nonetheless for you and your partner.

(3) Once a kid arrives it is vitally important IMHO to have a thing that you do as a parent for yourself. A selfish thing. Its yours and no one else's. That might be cycling, it could be pole dancing - it dont matter. Kids take over - for sanity sake have a thing that you do just for you. Helps recharge the batterers. What goes around comes around - your partner also should have a thing for her.

Tuppence worth. Enjoy the bike when you get out.

I would almost second that. With 2 kids under 3, Im finding they need more maintenance as they get older, and want to do things with you on the weekends. The good news is that training on the turbo (rollers for me) is far more effective than the long sat/sun spin. I get out now maybe every second week for a 3hr spin, any week I dont, I do 60-90 mins indoor instead. Sportives are still more than doable....the extra distance on the day never seems to bother me. Have a look at Chris Carmichaels book; The Time Crunched Cylist....very good