Sunday, September 26, 2010

A Few Hints of Spring

Finally the weather has improved a little (although forecast to be rubbish again soon!). Saturday was still windy and wet in parts, but nowhere near as bad as last weekend. I managed my 80km without too much pain and although I was pretty stiff and sore for the rest of the day had more or less recovered by Sunday. Am getting set to enter a couple of 100km events in the next month to get me used to big group riding and also longer distances. One of them is local and includes the infamous French Pass - the hill that makes my personal nemesis (Tahuroa) look like a mere incline -gulp! Out today for a training ride with PT which was hard work and left me looking like a tomato (luckily I'm just banned from eating them not looking like them!), will have a nice slow recovery cycle home from work which I hope will help ease everything off again.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Just Do It

After rain (and gales) stopped play last Saturday I couldn't face the thought of trying to do 70km on the indoor trainer (an hour is about my limit) and so persuading myself that the wind had dropped on Sunday I went out then instead. Hmm, note to self, when you're zipping along at more than 40kph on the flat having a great time don't forget you have to turn around.... The slog home was very painful, very slow and very wet. The cross winds were almost as bad as the head winds as I was getting blown off the road. Actually no, the head winds were worse, uphill, then it started raining. Are you getting the picture yet - miserable! Piked at 64km but given the weather it felt like I'd done 90. Seriously sore legs all this week, not helped by a hard gym session with PT on Monday. Tuesday evening I was supposed to do sprint intervals on the way home (wind assisted -yay!) but my legs weren't having a bar of it so I had to settle for a harder base ride instead (50 mins at 85rpm). Last night was wet and windy for a change so I got the trainer indoors and did an hour of sprint intervals in front of the tv. And today is Friday, day off to recover,  which I am seriously in need of! Hoping for a little less wind this weekend as I have an 80km target to meet. GERD meds seem to be working well and most of my symptoms have reduced significantly or gone, back to the docs today for a review. Two weeks without coffee, alcohol, chocolate and a whole heap of other things, and I've managed not to go completely mad :#

Friday, September 17, 2010

Seriously? No Way!

It is Saturday and I owe my training schedule a 70km ride. The wind is gusting at 45kph with intermittent very heavy rain showers. Ummm, sorry, no. Even the supermarket shopping is looking appealing right now.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Dodging the Rain

A 60km ride out with the boys last Saturday saw me getting a bit more used to the new bike, still a bit slow on the downhills as I get used to a bit less stability but apart from that all is good. We managed to stay dry for most of the ride, but foolishly I left my extra 10km until the end (instead of doing it before we all met up) which was the point the weather turned to rubbish and I had to battle it out alone in the wind and rain - hmph. On Monday I went out for a training ride with my PT, it was absolutely chucking it down until just before I headed out, and then miraculously stayed dry for the whole ride - we had a seriously hidous headwind coming back though which just about exhuasted me. The only plus was that it meant I had the same wind as a tail wind when I went home after work so had a very fast very low effort recovery ride. Tuesday I hit the gym for a core workout (which I'm still feeling two days later) and yesterday back on the bike for a hill strength endurance ride. I headed up Tahuroa, than back down, then back up again -- madness! Needless to say today's gym session I was taking it fairly easy. On the medical front one of my worst symptoms has just about gone and the other really annoying one has shown some improvement (although is still around) so hopefully this means that I am sloooowly getting better. It also turned out that my iron levels are very low (thanks so much to the nurse from the medical centre who rang to tell me and gave me the news as if she was about to tell me I had only days to live!!) so I'm now also taking iron pills which will supposedly make me feel full of energy - mmm, not noticing it yet.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Still a Bit Wobbly

A horrendously wet evening on Thursday saw me confined indoors on the trainer for my sprint session - by the time BIP got home the house was steamed up like a sauna! Friday morning I had a quick trip out on new bike as I wanted to get a feel for some hills before Saturday's ride. The biggest problem I have is on the downhills as I can't work out a good hand position for hovering over the brakes which means I worry too much and end up over braking. Saturday's 60km ride went well and didn't feel too hard (mind you I was out with the group so it did include a coffee break at the hour mark - or rather a chamomile tea break in my case, but more of that later) although I'm still a little wobbly on the bike at times and haven't solved the braking problem yet. I have a supervised ride with my PT today so hopefully we can iron out those issues. On the positive side I am still getting better speeds on the flat, and probably would be on the uphills too if I could work the gears out a bit quicker!
Meanwhile, back to the doctor again last Friday for some blood tests and finally perhaps a diagnosis. As my symptom list increased (and got even more odd!) I'd been doing what all good patients do and googling them (!) until finally about the only thing (apart from really freaky odd stuff) that pretty much fitted all of my symptoms was GERD (gastroesophegeal-reflux-disorder). Like most people I assumed this meant indigestion and heartburn (symptoms I actually don't have!) but apparently they are not always present. The doctor agreed and I am now trialling some drugs which surpress the creation of stomach acid and a diet which excludes all of the major food groups such as alcohol, coffee, citrus, tomatoes, peppermint(!?) and chocolate. Seriously, what is left?? Expecting miracles I am very surprised not to be better 3 days later, but apparently I won't start to show improvement until after a week...... tum te tum.... still waiting.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

New Wheels

Been busy busy busy since getting back from Skiing. A long ride last Saturday followed by a recovery ride indoors using the wind trainer that a friend has kindly loaned to me (it was too windy outdoors for an easy recovery ride so setting up the indoor trainer and watching tv as I rode was a good idea, plus the big pocket in my cycle shirt is the perfect size for the MySky remote!). Sunday night I was really sick again - I've been having ongoing respiratory problems since my last bout of Bronchitis which range from mildly annoying to frankly scary, so on Monday it was back to the Docs for a range of tests including exciting things such as chest xrays and ECG monitors which eliminated a whole load of possible nasty reasons but didn't get us much further in establishing a cause or solution - ho hum, I suspect this might be ongoing for a while so watch this space.
Yesterday was very exciting as I picked up the new bike I'd bought just before we went off on our hols. As you can see from the picture it is a thing of great beauty and as promised it goes faster than my old bike with the same effort - how cool is that, I never had that sort of success with a new pair of running shoes. I got it at 50% so saved a HUGE amount of money, which is a much better thing to think about than how much I spent :-)
Today was back to the gym for a PT session which was hard but not murder - although I suspect I'll be sore later in the week. Looking forward to getting back on the bike again tomorrow and hoping for some dry weather - especially this weekend when I need to start getting out for 60+ km.