Tuesday 4 October 2011

Lacking Motivation

 

Ah its no good.  My body appears to be shutting down ready for hibernation already.  Winter is coming.  I'm not a seasonal rider by any means but I do ride less when the bad weather comes.  The cold is bearable but the last few years we've had heavy snowfall in November and December so riding just comes down to nothing.
I'm feeling a bit sheepish as I should be on a trail run this morning, but I'm here blogging instead.  Trouble is at this time year I have no motivators.  I've said to myself that I want to pick up again and start racing some MTB events in the Summer, maybe a 24hour race, Endurance and the local Race series as well as some local road crits.  My 'plan' is that I'll start training from the beginning of January.  In the past I've started in November or December but because of the snow have ended up a lot on the Turbo Trainer and by June have just found myself burnt out.  Unable to put in good miles in the winter has meant my race endurance suffered.  So I'm thinking that a later start some smarter training and I'll be in a good a shape if not better but be ready to race for a whole summer! 

In the mean time I'm just going to have to keep active and not become a bum.  I may not be out running but I'm still riding to work and I'll do my weekly run at the weekend instead.  See all good.

What I'd really like to be able to do is cyclo cross.  So many of the blogs I read on here a pictures of people at cyclo cross races.  Slightly muddy affairs on grassy fields, gets my races juices flowing.  But then I think to myself that cx races at this time of year probably aren't so bad but come mid winter its probably just grim.  I've toyed with the idea of getting a cx bike but wonder if I'd be wasting my money.  Maybe I should have a go on my mountain bike and see if it would be a good investment.  Wonder if then I'd have better winter time motivation to train?

I weighed my self at the weekend and was not surprised to find that I was at 63.8kgs or 140.7lbs.  Thought my trousers felt tighter.  I seem to be up two percent in fat as well.  Looks like a bit of fat sitting on my middle.....love handles!  For years I've weighed 57kg or 126lbs, a great weight for a climber but since I've hit my mid thirties my weight has fluctuated so much more.  My aim therefore in training will be to at least drop close to that weight. 

So that's the plan.  Just need to pull myself away from this computer now!

Happy riding folks.

2 Comments:

I struggle w/ that winter time too. Riding the trainer is a killer for me and often cannot tolerate it as long as my training plan calls for. I started doing fall/ early winter cx races (just a few) to try to hold onto my end of year fitness. Training for cx is great because the races are only 40 mins, so I just do, once or twice a week, short but intense intervals. My training is done w/in an hour. That's it! I do show up on my mtb bike. It works in the sense that no one, inlc myself, have any expectations of me doing well on it, so that takes a lot pressure off.

That sounds like a good plan as I never expect anything great from my racing results as long as I've given it my best. That an my wife would moan at me if I tried squeezing another bike into my shed!! I've recently been introduce to the idea of micro intervals for those with not much time on there hands. I'll write about it in my next post!!

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