Ready to Start the Challenge - training

Monday, December 1st. Training begins.

The morning dawned bright and humid. I was up at 4:15am, grabbed a cup of coffee then hit the trails for a quick hitout before work. The "Standard Morning Ride", that I've been doing for years now is only short, but heavy on short steep pinch climbs, and is a mix of tarmac and dirt. I'm lucky the Niner is very light as I was feeling washed out from a night of broken sleep and so took things pretty slow. The humidity though was oppressive.

I did a few rides over the weekend, just short rides on the Niner around the mountain bike parks in my area. Yesterday I went out (road cycling) with the intention of putting in an easy 100k or so, however that didn't eventuate due to a road full of glass and crap from the storm we had a few nights back.

My plan for now, building up my base, is to do as much mountain biking and road cycling as I can for the entire month of December. I figure the mountain biking will contribute to a lot of strength, and the road riding adding in some much needed endurance.

I'l have another look at my proposed climb for this Everest after receiving a lot of advice from the Strava Cycling group. It'll most likely depend on how I'm going as March draws near. I have a full 3 months of preparation, so at this stage at least, I'm feeling confident.

My trouble is I'm not built like a "roadie", i.e. tall and slim. I'm pretty "square" as my wife would say, with wide shoulders, long torso and short legs. It'd be nice to be a skinny, tall roadie but I have to live with what I've got I'm afraid. Therefore I'll just have to suck it up and make do.

My mantra from here on is "Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits".

Ready to get back to training

Finally back into riding! Got out of bed at 4:15am, grabbed a cup of coffee, checked Velonews (http://velonews.com) got dressed, grabbed the Niner and off I went for some dedicated trail time.

I didn’t push the pace as it’s been quite a while since I’ve ridden. I think my heart rate was pretty high really the entire way round, though I felt OK. I took the steep pinches slowly and easy, trying to keep a nice even pace. I’ll maintain this type of riding until I feel my body respond to more miles and efforts. No use trying to smash myself before I’m ready I guess! The trails offer steep pinches and a few decent climbs to get myself used to the effort of riding again. 

Lunchtime (we all have to work right?) rolled around and I decided I’d try doing a bit of running again. It was 31 degrees outside and humid. Not exactly what you’d call perfect weather for a run. Nonetheless off I went. It was much harder than I remember. I used to regularly run half marathon’s at 5:10 pace, which I could sustain for the full 21k’s. Those days seem like an eternity ago. I found myself hitting that pace, but for only 400-500m at a time before walking for a distance.

Strava Files
http://www.strava.com/activities/222949038
http://www.strava.com/activities/222847087

I came to a small park full of water and waterbirds. I decided I’d do some stair reps, and then some push-ups and sit-ups. Sort of a mini HIIT session. By the time I got back to the uni where I work I was drenched in sweat and already late for a meeting. Couldn’t care though as I’d done my first decent hit outs in weeks and despite the tiredness setting in, I felt great.

It’s a long way to the finish line of my own personal “Everest” so for the present, “time is on my side” as the Stones song goes..

Looking forward to tomorrow's ride already.

Exploring Samsonvale 16/11/2013

I went out with the intention of just cruising around the place, and having a look at some climbs etc. The roads were a little rough with patchy and unkept bitumen. On the whole though it was a great morning to be out riding and just enjoying the experience without any real destination in mind.