40 Goals

Post Etape Camp Tour of the Surrey Hills Fitter, lighter, stronger. We can rebuild him. Whistled round the route this morning, broke 4.30 even though I spent five minutes at the beginning of the ride fixing my light, which fell off and smashed all over the road. Even managed an 80rpm cadence average. I reckon a combination of losing weight, stronger legs and better nutrition have lead to the improvements in my performance. It was really windy today but that didn't phase me. As I finished I felt like I could have kept on riding - but managed to resist the temptation ;-) I almost feel like a real cyclist now, as I passed lots of riders today but no-one passed me! 3rd Time Lucky beats the 4hr 30mins barrier.

Etape Training Camp Photies Not wanting to bore you with the 1.5gb of photos (only kidding). Here are some savoury sights ... the full set can be found on flickr if you're interested. The Lanzarote coast in all its glory The Chain Gang (Andy & Ian Driving with the middle group behind) Aero Profile (I wore euskatel kit to get local sympathy!)

Weigh-In Friday Weight: 78.0kg Body Fat/LBM:16.5%/65.1kg Riding: Lots Calories: Not so many. Wow! Lost a kilo and a half in weight over the training camp. Just goes to show how easy it is to lose weight if you have the time to ride all day every day. Talking through power outputs and ideal weight with the coaches last week has mean't I should be aiming for 6% body fat and 70kg for July. It is achievable they tell me. Well only another 8 kilos to go and we're still 5 months out so that probably is very achievable. Medical for Etape Entry Form Had my medical today to get sign-off for L'Etape. Cost me £35 to measure blood pressure (110/70), Resting HR (47) and Urine Test (All ok). He signed off my form and I put it in the post straight away ... hopefully I won't end up with No. 8499 (!). I guess the 35 quid is fair given I'm not ill and I'm using NHS resources that could be put to better use helping sick people. Still, couldn't resist giving the Doc some advice...

400 miles in 6 days How cool is that. I have the itinerary for the week and we're stacking on the miles. First ride today and I didn't need to worry about keeping the pace, I'm in ok shape compared with the rest of the guys and certainly could have gone harder today, although that would have been a stupid move given there is so much riding ahead of me. I've stocked up on GO and REGO, Science in Sport are making a fortune out of me, but frankly its worth every penny, I'd hate to miss a ride due to poor nutrition or recovery. Aparently, according to Joe Beer (who I was riding with for some of Saturday's ride, there I go name dropping) I should be using PSP22 during my rides, so SIS are gonna get even more money from me! Here's the schedule. Friday - 80km (actually it was more like 70) over 'El Golfo'. 2 hrs 40 mins. The group that did this last week took an hour longer than we did. Mostly due to high winds and slightly weaker group apparently. Felt rea...

Tips for traveling to La Santa Don't take a bike tool in your hand-luggage - it will get confiscated at the airport If you are hiring a bike take a pump, a bike-tool and water bottles, minimum. If you go out for a leisurely ride on arrival get a map, so you don't get horribly lost If you get a puncture make sure you have a pump as well as levers and a tyre Expect all shops to be closed when you want them and open when you don't Its fantastic though - warm and a total joy. The Cannondale R1000 *is* really nice, silent and deadly, must sort out my noisy trek when I get home. Missing my wife and kids tho, first hols without them and it feels really weird. Oh and also, If you are hiring a bike obviously take your shoes and pedals, but also take your saddle and seatpost you won't regret it. The difference between yellow and green rooms is yellow rooms are bloody noisy whilst green rooms aren't... that'll teach me for being a bit tight. Skip the half-board at 45 quid....

Sunshine here I come ..... Lanzarote training camp starts tomorrow, flying out at the crack of dawn. Checked the forecast on the bbc weather site and it is scorchio! scorchio! scorchio! Unfortunately its also windy-windy-windy kite flying weather too with 26mph winds forecast. I'll need to draft behind some giants. It will be quiet around here for week or so, but rest assured I'll bore y'all with my holiday snaps when I return.

Weigh-In Monday Weight: 79.3kg Body fat/LBM: 18.9%/64.3kg TBW: 54.1% Riding: 204km Calories: Not many. Yay! I made it. 79.3kg thats 12st 7lbs. That is just about the lowest weight I've got down to in 3 years. I ditched the food diary and just ate at mealtimes and worked hard on the bike. I put in quite a few high intensity intervals last week and my legs are stronger for it, but right now base is still my major development need. But, it really does help to get great results when you put in the effort - helps to motivate and keep going. Looking back through my food diary (when I did update it) I can see that the week was excellent and the weekend was a disaster. I kind of knew that but seeing the results of being good will spur me on - I still don't know how I managed to resist some lemon cheesecake on Friday night. Eat your heart out Lance. And of course I'm off to La Santa in Lanzarote on Thursday with my new sub 13st body. Only a mere 4kg to go till I hit 75kg (or for you...

Tour of the Surrey Hills - Take 2 I'm going all out to impress coach this week. Man I was knackered after the first 4 hours and rather than take a short cut and limp home I soldiered on. I made a conscious effort to increase cadence and whilst its only increased by 5 rpm to 79 thats progress. I am now totally and utterly knackered. The bowl of bran flakes I ate when I got in from the ride was quite possibly the most fantastic meal of my life.

Reccie of Etape 2007 by Mike Cotty (1st Brit last year) Cyclefilm have posted a reccie of the route , also ran recently in cycling weekly. Some nice photos to inspire. I'm quite intrigued about the video they are going to sell ... maybe it will work with the tacx imagic I just ordered :-) Or maybe a quick shufty down there during spring is the answer ... 'er indoors will need something expensive to justify that. Been hard at it today ... don't want another bollocking from coach.

Entered Fred Whitton Challenge I had a diary entry reminding me that today was the day for entry opened. I have pulled down the form, filled it in and posted it off. Now to find some sponsors. More details are available on the website , the route looks pretty hairy at 114 miles over some of the nastiest climbs in the Lake District. Roll on May 13th. The entry has closed already (!!!) it must have been open for a day at most, it must be good. DAMN ITS SO GOOD I DIDN'T GET A PLACE -- PEOPLE MUST HAVE BEEN REGISTERING FROM MIDNIGHT OR SOMETHING!!!!! I know, you wait all week for a post on this blog then three (strike that) four all come at once.......

Time for a serious bollocking from coach One of the downsides of self-coaching is you don't always know whats best for yourself. As I come out of base building and start the serious phases of strength and power building its time for some serious words with myself. The lack of progress in weight management is just not good enough. Yeah for sure the christmas break was acceptable but last week wasn't good enough, 218 km of riding hides the fact that I just didn't push myself - ok so I got up early and trained twice a day putting in the miles, but was I really trying that hard or just easing back? Getting on the turbo and doing an "easy" session is ok when you're recovering from a hard ride or part of a periosized program - but not as the modus operandi. A lot of people have given support, time and energy in helping me to achieve my goals and I am taking the piss. I've got to ask myself a simple question: How much do I want this? After such a good start on Ne...

Weigh-In Monday Weight: 81.9kg Body fat/LBM: 19.6%/65.8kg TBW: 54.0% Riding 218km Food: 14,600cals What a total idiot. Spent all week exercising hard and eating moderately then come the weekend 2 major infractions involving a large bag of wine gums, a large packet of biscuits and the remains of a Christmas hamper and I ended up with a nett deficit of 7 calories. I know what I'm doing wrong so why the **** do I keep on doing it? On a more positive note I did plenty of riding despite the dreadful weather. I even managed a session running in the hills with the better half. Its a real shame I managed to damage something in my calf/ankle. There is a twinge there constantly and it feels like its right on the outside of my ankle and outside of my low calf. Hope its nothing serious. I'll listen to it whilst I exercise anyway - it felt fine last night during an easy (but so boring) session on the turbo. Booked in for the Goring 10k on Sunday 25th February - should give me a chance to go...

New Year Tour of the Hills Training Ride Given I live on the route it seems like a good ride to train on so I'm gonna work up to doing it back to back. Starting at Horseblock hollow and putting Shere-Amletts lane at the end of the ride rather than the beginning means I did cover the same route and distance just in a different order. It was quite windy and the roads were wet today which made it really hard work on the ascents and slower for safety on the downhill bits. I managed to cover the 106 km route in 4hrs 50mins, with only 1920metres of climbing its not exactly Etape. Still, it was a bit of a result personally, when I did the event in August it took me over 6 hours ... but then I did get majorly lost around Coldharbour & Ockley and ended up on the A24 (!) (which is a bit of an embarrassment given I'm a local). The first placed rider in August did it in 4hrs 30mins so there's something else to aim for. First of many ...