Catching up is hard to do

Things I have learnt in 2019 – I can run (well, jog) 10k. I cannot jog 10k without aching for 48 hours afterwards, however.

Why running and not cycling? Mostly an experiment to work out cross-training; running has the merit of impact which, with a history of osteoporosis in the family, seems like a useful thing to do.

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Thursday random stuff

Gym continues – possibly my longest streak of gym attendance for a while. The Fitbod app continues to be useful (again, not an ad. Just stuff I use), which may be part of it. Things I like: the ability to change exercises on the fly – the gym was busy the other evening and there were no weights benches free, so I changed the seated stuff to standing variations. If something doesn’t appeal, I can change it to something else that is more interesting/less uncomfortable (Supermans hurt my leg, for example). I also like that I can check what muscle groups I’m covering in the workout vs what muscle groups are relatively fresh (not my quads. Never my quads!) and make sure that I’m getting a reasonable spread of exercises. I’m not doing upper vs lower and so on – I’m looking for all-round fitness and, frankly, my legs (other than hamstrings) get a fair workout just from riding. The app is a bit like having a personal trainer on tap, to mix things up.

I’m watching what I eat again, with a bit more discipline. Eating lower carb, for various health-related reasons. I should have done this some time ago, although it’s proving as awkward to get the balance right with cycling as you might think. Tentatively, I think I have to fuel rides from the outset (instead of taking on carbs after a couple of hours) – it worked ok last Sunday, for a given value of ok. I’m following another app for this, with a group thing – because I know I stick to things better if I think I’m accountable to someone else. I’m old enough to have given up trying to change my personality and instead focus on working with/around it.

20ok ride this weekend, since I figure I should get in a metric double century before reading for the imperial double in three weeks …

Random check in

Still here, still riding. I’m now experimenting with Zwift workouts again, as their plans have been updated to be somewhat more adaptive to real world issues, and are a bit more realistic in time commitments. Also re-starting gym workouts, as I’m finding Fitbod’s (also adaptive) workouts to be interesting (again, not sponsored, just something I like using).

Planning to ride StP again this year, and eyeing the remaining 5 weeks with a bit of trepidation.

General musing

The hip, it hurteth. Again. This is unamusing, but most likely the result of not quite enough exercise and so on (too much work, not enough energy and so on and so on). Circling back around to “what can I do that I actually will do”? Read more

Achievement unlocked

Finally managed to drag myself out of sleep (or at least off the sofa) and onto the turbo – 30 minutes done, via Jon’s Short Mix on Strava. I wasn’t really intending to do a workout; I had decided I would noodle about on Strava for 30 minutes, just to get my system started on the idea of morning workouts again. But, bah, plans. I logged on to find a 30 minute event about to start, in the ‘E’ category (aka, stick within a specific % of FTP and you all ride together no matter what your watts are), so I joined. Why not? Read more

Food for thought (and other cliches)

Not feeling great – and have been feeling lousy for a couple of days. It doesn’t seem to be the viral crud going around, to any great degree. I’m wondering whether it’s related to an increase in exercise whilst still restricting calories. Read more

Attempted DIY 400k = 360k

Almost, but not quite – I would have kept going out if it was an event, but it wasn’t and so I didn’t.
I thought it would be a useful testing ground for a few things, and so it proved – although some of the things tested were unexpected.

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