Training all wrong..

This week has been a busy one with plenty of training at the start, followed by a cold followed by a bit more training today at the gym. Good luck to anyone that managed a ride this afternoon given the temperature and impending snow.

Monday was maybe a mistake: I cycled to work, did spin at lunchtime, cycled home and then went to the gym. Managed a weight training class on Tuesday but was weak as a sparrows fist bump having not done this class for a while. Another solid spin session on Wednesday but struggled with a chesty cold. Felt sorry for myself on Thursday, worked a whole day (yes a whole day) with out training on Friday and then spent a couple of hours at TFD this afternoon.

www.tfd-grove.co.uk/

The stepper was hard work, still have the vestiges of a cold. I decided to split the rest of the time between legs and arms and forget the core/warmdown/stretch. Legs are not bad in terms of strength but then I would be disappointed if they were rubbish given the amount of cycling and circuit training I do. I managed a round of leg pressing, dumb bell squats and deadlifts whilst an 18 stone beef cake walked around the machines checking his baseball cap that was on backwards, filling his water bottle and adjusting his wrist straps. I moved onto arms and he deadlifted 6 tons twice followed by a lot of looking in the mirror.

Now arms are an issue, I make Mr Bean look like Mr Guns. I have come to the decision with Matt at TFD that a few chin ups and dips would be in order to strengthen the top half up - hopefully this will delay fatigue and stiffness setting in at the neck/shoulders. After doing this, I switched to the bicep bar until I genuinely could not lift it anymore (sets of 5). Mr Beef Cake had progressed through his programme to the point where he was cracking walnuts with his arse cheeks and then checking his baseball cap was correctly oriented in a backwards facing direction. He did one more deadlift and then drank a milkshake; the sauna beckoned.

I did notice in the mirror (hey, I was in the free weight area) that I favour my good knee which puts uneven pressure on my lower back. Not much I can do about this except lift lighter weight but that would be pointless - I just have to think before I lift to avoid any issues.

All in all, not a bad week but I have missed a long ride. Spence popped in and we decided to enter the CTC ride from Swindon on 18th Feb - 75km and hilly, good Devon and Cornwall preparation. Hopefully Nobby can join us so we can lower the tone with our Mountain Bikes...

www.ctcchallengerides.co.uk/CTC2012_Swindon_Champions_Family_Sportive.php

Happy days!

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