A Really Tough Easy Ride

Today's planned to be easy on effort- keeping the heart rate in recovery or aerobic zone,  no slipping into tempo tri pace. It was also planned early to avoid the worst of the weather.  Forecast was cloudy at mid day but by 3pm there would be heavy rain.
Going up the hill out of Sheffield (a57) was painfully slow - poor TSK - so I promised him we would make it a 50 mile ride to make up for the snail's pace as more than one mamil passed us with a cheery 'hello'.

After a brief stop in Bamford with a wave at Richard Hakes we made the decision to turn left towards Haddon instead of taking the exposed route through Tintwistle. I think we had both been alarmed by how cold our skin temperature was during our pee stop in Bamford.  Suddenly getting out of the wind will do that for you.
We flew through Hathersage,  formulating a plan to stop for cake and tea in Calver. TSk suggested we cut it short and head home after coffee but,  thinking he was saying it for my benefit, I reinforced just how much fun I was having and I wanted to continue.  Refreshed by Parkin we continued to Bakewell where, at 12 o'clock it started to drizzle.

Again TSK asked if I wanted to drop the planned circuit of Chatsworth but I said I had another waterproof and would be fine. Then we got on the back of a train of mamils and made some progress on the headwindy main road for a short time before turning off into the Chatsworth estate. The ride through Chatsworth and Baslow was, in general,  really nice without all the motorists blocking the roads - as tends to happen when it is warm and sunny. Even the climb up to Owler Bar started off pleasant,  although it looked like I was on for a personal worst and the rain was getting more earnest,  I was still really impressed with my new windproof which was keeping the rain at bay no problem. I gave up on the heart rate control here.  I was on my way home so no need to worry about blowing-up. Eventually my heart rate settled for 2.8 anyway.

I did think that I would stop and put on my coat and hat before the descent but as we reached the summit it was full-on snowing the shit out of itself and there was nowhere that I particularly wanted to stop. In theory I was going to get down off the hill as quickly as fucking possible.

I enjoyed the first bit of the descent because it's fast with great sight lines and then I started to just be glad I had selected my helmet with a peak on it this morning as I tilted my head so that the visor kept the huge chunks of snow out of my eyes. By the time I reached the Dyson factory my feet were soaked through and as soon as I got to the run out at the bottom of the steep section I stopped to put my coat on. I couldn't get the zipper to do up and left TSK freezing at the traffic lights waiting for me.  The best of me wishes he'd just gone ahead and left me.  A big part of me was glad he waited but at this point I didn't realise he was worse off than I.

As he gradually dropped back I finally found the flyover the perfect stopping place out of the rain and wind to get his second coat on. I led up the last hill to get the heat and kettle on and wrap myself in fleece so I could help him. A good dose of tannin has mostly fixed us but for an easy ride,  hypothermia really shouldn't have been part of the plan.

Next item on the agenda - swimming

I have finally made it to my new pool. I joined 2 weeks ago when we returned from holiday only to contract the lurgy. The last few days have been a mishmash of trying to get up in time to go, trying to finish work early enough to go or trying to have the energy to go somewhere new, find out where everything goes and find out what is good and what is bad.

I admit I was a bit dubious about it. I consider Ponds Forge to be such a great international facility and I signed up for 3 months at the gym without even having tried the water. It felt a tad rash given that I don't do weights that often and with the best intentions, rarely get around to attending classes either.

Last night I got organised enough to write down the pool opening times, booked on a yoga class whilst I was at it and packed my swim kit.

Much to my surprise and in spite of my reluctance I assembled the correct quantity of 20p pieces to do parking and lockers and successfully made it there. The changing rooms were unnervingly busy but they lacked the pungent odour of Ponds Forge nappy suite or poorly cleaned loos. The paper dispenser in the toilets worked properly and there were lockers available despite the busy time.

I reached the poolside and set about changing my watch from a 50m pool to a 25m pool. As I did so it occurred to me just how pleasant it was sitting on the edge, partially submerged. It wasn't freezing cold! I'm not the neshest person in the world but I don't have much body fat so pf used to make me shiver quite a lot. I know some people like it that way because they swim faster than me but as far as I am concerned I sat on the edge of that pool thinking, "I think I'm gonna like it here".

In the water, I shared a lane with one man. To my absolute joy he was young, well built and I kicked his ass... though he wasn't so slow as to get in my way. We were polite to each other.

As I went about my laps in a relaxed manner (adaptation only) I took in my surroundings. One thing that stays constant in life is the architecture of swimming pool roofs. I must've spent more time than I remember here because the wave-shaped roof was so familiar to me. The lane markers weren't brilliantly clear but unlike pf the tiles were close to me and large enough to follow so I had no navigation issues. The water was perfectly clear, not like the horribly cloudy conditions of Concord Leisure where I am reduced to swim on a weekend when of is closed for competitions.

After 14 laps I stopped for a rest. I had already decided to aim for only 30 so as not to overdo it. I rested for a minute. In retrospect the sides aren't easy to hold onto so in future I will rest at the shallow end. (When swimming widths at PF there is no shallow end).

I set off again, still out-swimming my companion but he sat on my feet in between rests. Just as I started to feel tired, like I was ready to quit I found I had done 10 and only had 6 to go to hit my target. As I started them I did a bit of maths that if it was true that this was a  33m pool I would have nailed my May race distance. It wouldn't be fast or pretty but a great motivator.

Sure enough, having checked with the lifeguard, the stats were in and I was overjoyed. I headed off for a gushing hot shower, infinitely better than ponds forge, in a very good mood.

An excellent recovery ride

feeling sorry for myself

I measure so much of my life on how active I am it is unbearable to stop sometimes. Now caught between recovery and not overdoing it I waver between completing chores and resting and don't have the energy for anything more.

Oh how I miss my health.

Valentine's Day 2015

We celebrated Valentine's Day by shopping for a stove to make the house nice next winter and I can't think of a more romantic day given that we are both still recovering from a cold and we both felt like a walk. It was a good long walk.

Dinner in a Chinese restaurant on the way home was made only slightly cheesy by the rose we were awarded for leaving.

I fiddled with my bike and did some knitting.

The perfect rest day.

I've had enough now and would like to ride my bike again please.

One day at work on my bike and two horrid days (1 in bed and 1in work) of trying to shake off some bloody flu virus that I have had since Austria. I had no choice but to stay in bed on Tuesday, I slept all day. I wish I had chosen to stay at home today but I picked up an interesting job and now have 2 weeks to do something impressive with it.

Knowing your own body

Written approximately 12 hours prior to receiving a letter from the hospital instructing me to continue taking the iron tablets that they had previously told me to stop. Obviously explaining the rapid deterioration in my performance, breathlessness at only 1500m attitude and ability to generally cope with life.

Reset the onwards and upwards button