It’s been a while….

It appears that my first attempt at keeping a blog or training activities has failed miserably, as I’ve not actually posted anything new since November 2009!

That’s 4 months of training that haven’t been documented! Having said that, there’s been quite a few weeks that were heavily disrupted by snow and breaks.

In reality I don’t know how succesful my my training has been this far. At the beginning of this training season (October) I never set myself any benchmarks, which is something I really regret. It was so often that I read about how important it is to do a series of tests each month, in order to track progress. Sadly I didn’t do that, so now I am left in the dark.

The trouble is that I’m doing a lot of indoor training and only getting out on the winter bike (Specialized Allez Sport). Naturally, that is slightly less performant than my race bike, so doesn’t feel quite as good. I also fail to account for the fact that it’s cold, windy, wet and slow out there, so often come back feeling a little less than satisfied with my performance. Nonetheless I continue to train.

I’m still doing strength and length sessions in the gym 4 mornings a week, followed by at least 4 evening sessions on the turbo (or an outdoor session if the weather is suitable). I’ve got no issue with going out in bad weather, but for an hour of intense training, it really doesn’t work well. On the plus side, I’m soon getting rid of a major responsibility, which takes up a lot of my time in the evening, so my training time can start to slope up. It’s been a limiting factor up to now…

For my records :-
Parallel Squats : 60kg (+bar) – 8-12 reps – 3 sets
Calve raises: 70kg – 10-12 reps – 3 sets
Deadlifts: 30kg (all the weight I can get on the bar) – 12 reps – 3 sets
Stepdowns: BW+10kg – 12 reps – 3 sets
Gym ball hamstring thrusts: 12 reps – 3 sets

Current weight: 73kg (down 4kg from November!)

Average weekly training time :-
Gym: 3 hours
Turbo: 4 hours
Roads: 3-4 hours
Total: 10-11 hours

It’s time to start picking it up! I’m aiming for at least 8 hours a week on the road in April.