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.

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.

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.

Cycling and Skiing

This blog update brought to you from Turangi. Have had some amazing skiing so far, yesterday’s weather was amazing and fresh powdery snow meant we skied all day. When we arrived here last Friday I discovered something quite amazing – cycling has improved my skiing! Apart from the obvious benefit of stronger quads and calves (meaning I don’t get tired so quickly) the downhill cycling on Tahuroa has meant that my skiing speed has increased as I’m not so nervous at heading downhill at speed. Lack of speed was the major problem with my skiing so it’s improved hugely thanks to the power of the bike! Having said that speed is not always a good thing, had a major wipeout yesterday during my ski lesson – stopped paying attention to the terrain (too busy thinking about all the things I had to remember) and found myself out of control at high speed – took off over an edge – wheeeee, landed on my feet which duly flew out from under me (never a good thing to see your skis in front of my face!) and landed with a nice bump on my butt followed by my head bouncing off the snow – and that dear readers is why we wear a ski helmet. No damage apart from a large snowball down my pants. As we were leaving at the end of the day the wind whipped up and it started snowing again, unfortunately the wind has increased and the mountain was closed today. BIP gone off to play golf and I went out for a strength interval cycle on the bottom part of the mountain road. Must lie down now.

Going Bananas

One of the things my PT has advised me to do is work out what sort of food I can eat while cycling so I know what to take along on the big day to sustain me over 6 hours + of cycling. So my homework this week was to take a banana out on my ride and try and eat it without slowing down or hampering my cycling. So off I set this morning with my (already partially opened) banana tucked in the back pocket of my cycling shirt. After about 30 mins of cycling I decided now was the time and encountered my first problem - how to get the banana out of my pocket. The knobby bit at the top was caught in the elastic top of the pocket and I ended up nearly removing my shirt in order to get it out - hmm, definite loss of speed there not to mention the dangers of flashing if I wasn't wearing my thermals. The next problem was that the nice flat bit of road I had been admiring when I first attempted to get the banana out had now disappeared and as I took my second bite I found myself at the bottom of a hill - phttttwt, spit out lump of banana in order to get up hill without choking or throwing up. Then I had to go downhill on a windy bit of road trying to manage steering, braking and banana holding,  nothing like getting mashed banana all over your cycling gloves and handlebars to brighten up your day. At this point I admitted defeat and biffed the remains of the banana into the nearest bush. I think it's safe to say that bananas will not be on my list of approved cycling foods.

Supervised Training Ride

So it turns out one of the reasons I was so pathetic during my PT session last Monday was I was coming down with flu! Yes flu!! Unbelievable, I haven't had the flu since I was about 8, I guess my immune system was still down in the dumps from all the chest and sinus infections of last month and the flu bug saw an opportunity and swooped in. I also got another dose of bronchitis along with it for good measure, just what I needed. So a week of no training spent mostly in bed or sleeping. Yesterday I had a game of hockey so decided to use that as an indication of whether I was well enough to train again, and having survived it reasonably well had my PT session today which consisted of going out for a 50 min cycle with my trainer. Apparently what we did was what I should be doing for my base rides - definitely worked harder than I would have if I'd been doing a base ride by myself which is a useful indicator. Got some handy hints on a few bits and pieces which should help on group rides and also some homework which consists of things like eating a banana while cycling ! Pretty worn out when I got back but seem to be reasonably ok and haven't had to resort to a lie down yet this afternoon - maybe I am actually getting over this bug?!

Week 2, Here I Come

Torrential rain all day Saturday and the absence of the rest of my cycling group (off doing some extreme cross-country running event in Rotorua) meant that with all the will in the world I could not get myself out on the bike. Instead I set my alarm for early on Sunday with the plan of getting out first thing as I had a late hockey game so figured it should just about work out ok. Unfortunately having got out of bed I got as far as making a cup of tea and then got back into bed again! I finally managed to get myself out on the bike at about 2pm for a hard hilly ride - actually harder than anticipated due to poor route planning! Needless to say I was exhausted when I got back, and then had to go out and play a game of hockey - my poor legs were not impressed. Still very tired this morning so I was totally rubbish during my PT session. I had to do a kettle bell swing warm up interspersed with bungees on the swiss ball and by the time I'd done 3 sets each of those I was seriously ready to lie down. After the dreaded ITB roller sets and some half-hearted attempts at plank and side holds even my trainer had to concede that he wasn't going to get much out of me today! "Listen to your body" is good advice - mine is telling me to go and lie down somewhere warm and have a nice snooze.