A Good Week and a New Year

What a Week

Let’s start with New Years Eve.

Youngest son (16 yoa) had a NYE party to attend, needed to be collected at 1.30 am and I wanted to put in a few kilometers on the bike on New Years Day morning.

Solution, go to bed at 8.00pm, wake at 1.00am and collect him, go back to bed at 2.00am and wake again at 5.00am to hit the road. Easy, boring NYE but easy.

And, if I was going to do all that, I had better make the ride worthwhile.

Everything went according to plan and at about 5.30 I was driving into the CBD to commence a ride and I hit the roundabout at the base of Mt Coot-tha at about 6.00am.

I decided that time was on my side and I would do full circuits of the Mountain rather than just summits.

4 circuits anti clockwise and 2 clockwise latter I decided a river loop would be a good idea and I kicked off the year by putting 85 kilometers under my belt. However, I have to admit the last 15 were pretty ordinary.

It has been a 300 plus k week for me and included my first Cleveland, Wynnum/Manly adventure in 18 months (yesterday) and my first ever visit to the Mt Gravatt hill. (today) I also included a rest day last Monday (work induced) so all in all, I am pretty happy and feeling good.

I am aiming to be a little more disciplined in with my riding too, particularly when riding solo as I know I can somewhat lazy.

For example, on Tuesday I did a ride starting with a 25 minute warm up on the Nundah criterion circuit. I followed this with 2 rides byes to Nudgee Beach.

To keep my mind focused, I decided to ride a cadence of over 90 but less than 100 with an aim of keeping it at 90 or just above and a heart rate of 140 to 150 with an aim of sticking as close to 145 as possible. My idea was to simply adjust my gears to fit the parameters.

It was a great 90 minute workout; I really worked at an intense level without totally over doing it and rode a range of gearings due to a strong wind. However, I really have no idea if this type of training is actually of any use, however it provide me with some focus and kept my mind on the job.

I also managed to fit in 3 sessions on the rowing machine, 3 weight sessions (core exercises only) and 3 work outs with the punching bag. Add that to 300 plus kilometers on the bike including 5 Coot-tha’s and 3 Gravatt’s and I am pretty happy with what is easily my biggest week in over 18 months

In particular, I feel I am starting to get some sort of proper fitness back.

The motto for 2009 is ride with a purpose, even if that purpose is to catch up with friends and enjoy the coffee shop conversation afterwards.

I must now give some proper thoughts to goals for 2009.

Enjoy the coming week and do it safely.