Feeling like that hose pipe has been unblocked!!!!

To all sponsors out there, i know this is a terrible picture but i feel i'm doing Las Helmets and Pearl Izumi  a good deal here, shame i bought them!

Now you maybe be baffled by my post title but in my mind its pretty simple once you understand what it means.

Last year I trained all wrong, the gym training I did was non beneficial for cycling and my training was messy, no set program and no structure. Don't get me wrong I tried very hard but I just did the wrong things, this was down to inexperience and no personal knowledge. Therefore coming up to mid January early February I felt slow and sluggish with no leg speed, I felt very strong and powerful but no rapidness. Friends laughed when I came up with my description of how I felt, "My hose pipe's blocked" but I thought it made a lot of sense. Basically I had a lot of pressure building up but something was stopping it been released. However the same time  this year I feel a lot better, fresher legs day after day and a lot stronger and with still 6 weeks to the first race I'm sure there's more to come before I have to get my racing head on, with my  Belgian coach Luc Wante  a very credible and recommended coach guiding me through and sending me weekly programs  i'm feeling very enthusiastic.

Now I know I say this every week but this week i'm not going to ramble, its been 2 weeks since my last blog update and since then my training has been simple high cadence rides of between 2 1/2- 3 hours and the odd one over with weekend chain gang.

The week commencing the 2nd was a terribly wet week, with floods, gale force winds and recommendations not to travel if not necessary. However i decided to brave it and get out there relishing the 40mph tail winds that were on offer. Now been a bit unorganized and generally a bit of a fool i didn't write down what riding i did but just of the top of my head i know that from the 7 days 4 of them were on the bike doing a similar route each day round the maze of local lanes with rolling climbs and high dry stone walls and hedges to shelter in from the terrible rain. With my coach taking a week off after New Year my rides were down to me and i just did the same as advised and concentrated on riding with a high average cadence for around 2 1/2 hours. My ride on the Wednesday was cut very short after a very frustrating puncture in the heavy rain and wind. Now puncturing doesn't often bother me, i'm very capable getting it fixed pretty quick but when the pump doesn't work and gets jammed on the valve i tend to get pretty annoyed and twinned with the appalling weather i didn't relish the standing around in the road getting wet and cold, so the phone came out and mother was called.

Thursday's weather was even worse than Wednesday's and i decided i would go to the gym and do my cycling conditioning workout. A mix of free weight exercises and improvising static machines to help with  other exercises. Since starting doing this program I feel I have become stronger and more explosive, the trainer who wrote up this program is  a very talented trainer and really recommend him to anyone wishing to progress as a performance athlete or wishing to gain fitness and weight loss.

http://www.psuddspersonaltraining.co.uk/

Finally Friday came along with some good dry sunny weather, i'd arranged at the beginning of the week to go for a ride with my friend Graham and today was a perfect day. It was a great 35 mile ride from home through some small lanes to settle in the Yorkshire Dales then up the steep 1:5 climb over Atamire moor, to Airton and back via Gargrave and West Marton all on small lanes GREAT STUFF!!!!

Saturday was my first group ride of 2012 with a big group of about 40-50 guys meeting up in Keighley and riding up to Buckden in Upper Wharfedale and back. Riding from home to meet the group doing the ride and riding home was a well paced 3 3/4 hours 68 miles. Getting home for 1 pm knowing some good work had been done.

I finished the week off going to the swimming pool to loosen up and relax.

This week just gone I've again been concentrating on cadence. Tuesday I did a quick 2 1/2 hours ride with an avg cadence of 96 which i think is pretty reasonable considering the abundance of short steep hills.

Well Wednesday was set to be a great ride bashing round the lanes with Ian Wilko but it ended premature with quite a funny but frustrating outcome, very unexpectedly my crank fell off and predictably neither me or Ian had any Allan Keys "GREAT" so he went on his way and I back tracked a few miles to find someone with brains who'd actually remembered to bring their tools with them, not like us two numpty's, and in case your wondering why we both were idiots, he had set off with a loose shifter and the first thing wasn't "morning Hamish" it was "av ya got an allan key". Anyway I got it fixed and made my way back home before anything else went wrong. With the ride been cut short I decided I would go to gym that afternoon and make my legs sore.

Friday was my next ride and what a day, very cold but beautiful sun and nice quiet roads, i didn't get out till the afternoon but i managed a good decent ride round Historic Bolton Abbey and Burnsall, and also got a few pictures to brighten up the blog. My ride was 2 1/2 hours avg cadence of 96 and 38 miles covered. My coach had sent me an email that morning, with a 3 hour ride in the cards but unfortunately i didn't read it till the evening but i think the ride i did was still a good one.

Photo Taken from Burnsall fell road

Now Saturday I had a 3 hour ride scheduled and thought it would be perfect to mix it in with the Saturday morning chain gang as this is the same kind of time, but with a -3 night thick frost and icy patches were on the roads and the 8:30 start for the ride would be too risky and I thought it be better to hang on a couple of hours for the tarmac to warm up and believe me it was a good choice. But still a great ride was had on my favorite route with me mate sam, until he decided to slip on some slush and land in a hedge but with me there  for sympathy and basically encouraging him with laughter he soon got up and we were on our way. Not 3 hours but near enough 02:56 hours!!! with a near perfect avg heart rate and rpm as instructed.

Sam Boast riding Paythorne Berg!

Me between Paythorne and Wigglesworth Great Roads!! no people , no cars!!

Tomorrow another 3 hours is planned which i think will be over in lower Wharfedale where a friend is competing in Cyclo Cross Race in Ilkley so i'll probably bob by and give some good encouragement as he as for me in the past and i'm sure he'll be giving his best support this year too.