Archive for June 2012
Back into the swing
Posted on: Saturday June 30, 2012
Back to it after a month of sniffles, sinus bioslime, sore throats, patchy sleep and a workload of death.
100 One-arm swings
200 Deck squats
Partitioned as:
20 right arm swings
20 left arm swings
20 deck squats
x5
10x KB long cycle clean and jerk each side (alternating)
10 Push-ups
Sick, but not fully
Posted on: Sunday June 17, 2012
Turns out that going for a long ride in the cold isn’t the best thing for a cold. It seemed like it was lightweight enough to blow over, but I felt pretty crappy on Wednesday and worked from home on Thursday.
It’s Sunday night now and I feel ‘fine’ but for the light sinus headache and head full of snott. It’s been four weeks since any serious efforts, but that’s how it goes. I don’t feel awful, but tonight five pushups felt like 20.
The week ahead is wet. I’ve been enjoying the winter rides this year. A decent rain jacket and booties make a hell of a difference, but it’s no fun with this head.
Go away cold.
In which I say ‘fuck this cold’ and go out to Mt Pleasant and some extras in the fog with Graeme Pereira.
Posted on: Monday June 11, 2012
After nearly three weeks without a decent ride I wasn’t going to let a whole long weekend slip by without some pedal time, even with a niggling throat and impending cold signs.
Neil’s road bike done up and broke, Jim was out with a sick family unit and JP and the gang were lapping Woodend on knobbie tyres, but Graeme was up for a roll. The forecast was for a little morning fog clearing to a nice, sunny 16°. That was revised down to 14 over night, so I rugged up, but when I opened the back door I immediately went back inside and put winter gloves on. It was damp and frigid.
Graeme: ‘Dates are so much better than Gu.’
My heart rate was way up the whole ride on account of the sniffle, but it never really hurt. I guess when you’re redlining before the throttle is opened up there isn’t much scope for hurting, but that was just fine. We took a few alternate loops out past Mt Pleasant Road but even the familiar roads felt new, enveloped and emerging from a tunnel of thick fog all morning. The kind of fog that damps down and encloses all the little sounds around you as you ride. No rain, but wet roads. Even under a base layer, wool-blend jersey, arm warmers and rain jacket I never felt hot enough to unzip the jersey. I didn’t feel my feet all ride, but my hands were just fine. Graeme wore just a base layer and Rapha’s Pro Team jacket and felt fine. Either that thing is amazing or that boy don’t feel the cold.
Despite lacking any snap at all in the legs (or perhaps because of it), the new wheels were noticeably nice — faster, grippier and more comfortable. Unexpectedly, the bike steers differently with them; a little more eager to tip over into corners now.
Speedy wheels.
94km / 1,108m / 3:47:40
