Recently in Fitness Category

After bemoaning that I was getting nowhere with getting back in shape I managed to get in about 5-7 hours riding in the last week or so.

As liversedge pointed out on twitter: "They say to form a habit you need to do something 17 times. You've lost the habit. Plan to get to 17 workouts and force yourself".

Well I'm up to three, one of which involved going to a gym/health centre for the first time in about four years. I was immediately reminded why I haven't been - it's because they are soul-sappingly depressing, even if the new Trixter cycling machines were quite entertaining.

Far more enjoyable was getting out on a frosty Saturday morning of sunshine in Richmond Park for the regular London Dynamo club ride which, if you are taking part, is probably the best introduction to group riding there is in London. If you're not then you probably consider it some sort of stockbroker-led affront to basic cycling etiquette. It seems there's nothing the wider London cycling community enjoys more than a bit of Dynamo bashing.

These last two sentences are intended to act as a suitable deflection from me getting dropped a few times and struggling like a dog to keep up with pretty much everyone over the course of four laps (about 40km). But the return to fitness has to begin somewhere, usually at the bottom of a well of despondency.

I got out again on Tuesday morning before work and got in two fast laps done before I realised that my cycling was cutting into the time I was allowing for my middle class battle for victory in a lunch hour, otherwise known as getting our broken kettle replaced under warranty by John Lewis, without a receipt. While the hill up to Richmond Gate and from Kingston Gate may still have the better of me, I'm pleased to report that I won against Customer Service, coming away with a free replacement and a receipt. EPIC WIN!!1!!

Back to that Trixter bike though. Exercise bikes, spinning classes, turbo trainers = boredom. The Trixter Xdream was actually quite fun once I figured out what I was doing.

Figured out what you're meant to do and how to get started was one of those poorly designed user experiences that can ruin a product. Someone seems to have forgotten it's an exercise machine and insisted on a ludicrously anti-intuitive interface by trying to get you to work through a PC-based access screen using cursor keys.

Then there's the stumbling block of having to create a user to progress. Nope, ain't gonna happen. When I hit "quickstart" on a guest login, I want to be able to access everything and try it, not be offered Level 1 and told to work my way up.

Then there's the controls. Easily adjustable in the style of a mountain bike the kit may be, but that's where the similarity ends. Turning to keep on the course feels like trying to crowbar open a safe door. I'm not sure why they bothered.

But past all that there's an easily enjoyable game of riding where you can see wattage, cadence and all the other information a cyclist might want. Plus you can use it with your SPD shoes. We enjoyed ourselves arsing about on multiplayer mode for an hour and a bit but perhaps next time I'll just take my headphones and sit on one of the spinning bikes to endure my session.

And if all that's not enough, then let me tell you this: it's got a glowing endorsement from Sinitta. Quite literally SO Macho.

If ever there's a good weekend to come down with a heavy case of the manflu, aka the common cold, this weekend past was it. Temperatures below freezing added to sleeting snow and rain should and would have had me reaching for the excuses book had "ill" not got there first.

Looking around the internet I see people still went out riding; the Belgians even held a Superprestige cyclocross race in it. Don't believe me? Then go to the Sporza.be site and click on "wedstrijdverslag" to see the video proof.

If I had one, I'd be putting a big Asterix-tapping-his-head graphic up to qualify the lunacy involved. Instead I shall just continue snuffling into my umpteenth hankerchief of the weekend. I've taken to dousing them with a few drops of Olbas Oil
which is excellent for helping clear the tubes.

In winter I'll put a dot or two on the back of my glove when I go out as I find it quite nice to get that menthol scent and eucalyptus in to help clear my sinuses and make breathing less congested. It's not much different to a dab of Vicks VapoRub on the chest but in a slightly more convenient form as far as I'm concerned.

Nearly forgot to mention Observer Sport Monthly which featured some excellent cycling stuff this month including:

The Forgotten Man - a great interview with Mark Cavendish, winner of Best individual achievement 2008.

Elsewhere in the paper, there's an equally fascinating interview with Nicole Cooke, under the heading 'Queen of the road'.

Meanwhile the times carries a David Walsh piece on the most fascinating figure in the whole of the British setup: Steve Peters, cycling's psychiatrist. I think it's hard to over-estimate the difference that he makes to the whole operation. There's a huge part of living and performing that relies on confidence and he seems to be key to making sure there is confidence.

The Beyond MTB Spring Crits at Hillingdon are the sort of races I have to do - a test of attrition with the 2nd Cat boys hauling along as foolhardy 4th Cats like me try to cling on to the pace. The only way I'm going to get stronger is by getting out of my comfortable "pootling in the 4th Cats" box and pushing my limits in 2/3/4 races.

32 laps of Hillingdon goes by pretty quickly so I'm chuffed to report that I lasted 8 laps before getting shelled for the first time. That's 3 more laps than last year's equivalent race, most of which is down to better race craft and not allowing myself to drift to the back so quickly. The reason I went out the back was that I stopped concentrating on the wheel I was trying to follow and drifted. Had I stuck to my fellow Dynamo "Sneaky" Sneyd's wheel I would probably have stayed in the bunch all the way.

I sat out a few more laps before being persuaded to get back in the back of the bunch and see how I went. I don't usually do this but it turned out to be worthwhile as I managed to stay in for another 8 laps or so before coming off the back again. It adds up to two sessions blasting around at near the top end of my limits for 20 minutes and extending myself, which is the sort of training I really need to improve.

What I was careful about was ensuring I didn't overdo it. It's early in the year and I'm not fully fit so there's no reason to put myself past my limit so much that I get ill in races where I'm not really going to stand a chance of a point. So far this year I've lost a few weeks of training to being too shredded after races to train properly during the week and it's not getting me anywhere so I've decided to be more measured in my approach to what everyone else describes as "training races".

I'll be back on Saturday to have another crack at it with a single intention: not to get dropped for the duration of the race. It's going to need a bit of application but I hope I can manage it.

Looking at my training, the last time I had a decent long ride was 25 February, almost two weeks ago. This is probably not an ideal training plan if I'm going to improve this season.

It's starting to nag a bit in my mind that I'm probably not where I would like to be in terms of fitness this year. Then again it would be much easier if I wasn't so exhausted all the time at the moment and picking up niggling little injuries more often than points. The latest list of them is some sort of muscle pain in my right shoulder, a tightness in my left leg and a bit of a sniffle.

If I were any further from being in some sort of shape I'd probably need home help. Hopefully things will get back on schedule this month with things due to settle back down a bit. I'm going to try and get out for the Park Ride this Saturday for the first time in what seems like forever and then get back into riding during the week to build up my fitness again.

There's a race at Hillingdon on 15th March which I feel like I should be aiming to do although it's the 2/3/4 series that was a brute last year. Why I want to flay myself behind a bunch of 2nd Cat riders I don't know, but given there not much other racing about I feel like I should. Or maybe I could just go training instead. Which neatly brings us back to where we started.

*Sigh* It's not easy is it?

That is the observation from Ian Paine as to where I went wrong on Sunday. He's absolutely right. The mistake I made was to allow myself to drift down the field in the final laps.

It's frustrating but I know where I went wrong in the second Surrey League London Dynamo Beginners Series Race which means I can and will improve. I'd better start doing so soon because not scoring points is starting to frustrate me.

My first mistake was to ignore my own observations about the head and cross wind down the straight and first bend and trying to force a break with a clubmate with about 4 laps to go. That put my heartrate right through the ceiling and left me gasping and battling to stay in the bunch. I went back through the group faster than a greased pig out of a butcher's shop.

Stay in the bunch I did, whereas in previous races I've slid off the back of the bunch, which counts as a personal victory. However, it left me with a long way to go to get back to the business end of the race. By the bell I was mid-bunch but failed to work my way up into the first third which is where I needed to be over the lumps at the back of the course.

My speed over the downhill bits got me up a few places but not enough to to contemplate the sprint. Let's face it, if you're forty places back off the last corner with about 1km to the line there's not much point in burying yourself for 12= again. So I sat up a bit and coasted in to the line.

Actually I had a good reason other than lack of personal pride in my finish: getting home to my girlfriend's for lunch in one piece. I've not been doing big miles so far this year and wasn't entirely certain how my body would cope. Acton to Chertsey (20 miles/33km, race (24 miles/38km) and then Chertsey to the far side of Islington (35 miles/56km), counts as a bit of a long one for someone who hasn't even done the Surrey Hills since some time before Christmas.

The good news is that I made it in one piece, managed lunch and didn't pass out on the sofa. The bad news is that my legs hurt like hell for the rest of the day and then I had to ride back to Acton in the rain which means I have to clean the bike this week. Not that it's not due a wash and check.

Really the good news is that I was moving a lot more determinedly and powerfully, barring a small fade round Hampton Court on the way back. Add up the the distance and how I feel and divide by the time of year and it's all gravy (onion to go with sausage and mash) for where I would like to be come July.