Rain doesn't stop play!

The waether forecast was right, a cold front passing over Anglesey giving continious rain and damp weather - no point in doing a brisk 50 miler and getting soaked!

Instead I took my '50 miler' to the gym!  1 hour and 30 minutes of cardio and lower body work.

10 minutes warm up on the turbo, followed by the usual advanced stretching in preparation for 30 minutes of speedplay work on the turbo.  In addition to this, I wanted to simulate hillclimbing as well as speedplay, so the front of the bike was lifted at 25 degrees.

After this, I used bodyweight and dumbells to work the buttocks and quads even more (top secret training going on here!) followed by calf raises.

Balance along with ankle and knee strength is coming along very well, the wobble board has been a huge investment!  My business will be making its own version in the near future! 

There's 4 weeks to go, so actual stair climbing will be used to beef up training over the next 3 weeks.  The final week will invove carb loading - so watch this space for tips!

I'm planning on going to London in a few weeks to do a recce of Tower 42 and to eye up the 42 storey beast!

Fuel, Big gears and chasing showers

The weather for today was favourable, if a bit breezy.  I wanted to get a few extra miles in, so went into Llangefni and up towards Four Crosses, via Penmynydd Hill -  a great way to get warmed up after a few miles, average heart rate up here was 161.

Going was good from Penmynydd to Four Crosses with a tailwind making for a good 23-26mph average at times.  However, I decided to conserve my energy as I knew I would be battling a headwind all the way from Llanfairpwll to Rhosneigr.   The strength of the wind can be seen in the distance between Cable Bay and Rhosneigr with the rough seas (right).



I also met up with a fellow cyclist along the way near Mallatraeth and Aberffraw, who was taking a different route to me, and shortly aftera quick catch up, I took a pit stop for the Video blog (below)

After that I carried on towards Llanfaelog, taking a circular route into Rhosneigr and was shortly rewarded with a strong tailwind, which allowed for a good return - allowing me to use the 52:19 gears, and power up the hill out of Rhosneigr towards Llanfaelog and likewaise from Bryngwran towards Gwalchmai (Treban Hill), averaging 25mph on the flat. However, I did end up catching a small shower which crossed my path near Gwalchmai and into Mona, which was refreshing!

The momentum carried me up the hill in 52:21 from Mona to Rhostrewhwfa at 16mph, and the training during the last week has made a big improvement over last week along this particular section.


I took on extra fuel during breakfast, and this certainly helped with maintaining muscle glycogen levels throughout the ride (being topped up with regular energy drink).  A return back in time for lunch and refuelling!

A decent run today so can't complain!

Steady is the word!

This week has been a steady progress and developing on from last weeks' gains by allowing a combination of maintenance, core and cardio work.  Today was no exception!

After a warm up and lower body stretching, a 20 minutes interval training session followed on the turbo trainer. This provided a good mix of lower group work and cardio vascular training.  After a few minutes rest it was time for the wobble board.

This is used to strengthen the knee and ankle joints by forcing mucles which are not necessarily usedall the time.  I use slow and steady squats with arms outstretched.  It's both fun and a great strengthener and muscle activator around the lower joints.  The advanced training will involve weights, but for the time being body weight alone is sufficient.

This adds fun and stimulation to 'spice' up my training - I can't wait for the next session on Sat!

Great day for outdoor training!

It was a nice clear day today, so I decided to take full advantage of the weather to do a 45 mile run before lunch.  Maintained an overall average speed of 16mph over a rather hilly course.  It was a cold start, so a 10 minute warm up on the turbo allowed me to go straight out and behin training in earnest.  Bike and rider both going well and last week's training has certainly given an edge to the training.  A quick refuel after 20 miles before carrying on.  Once back at the gym, it was a short warm down session on the turbo followed by stretching and a quick re-warm for a minute.

Steady state training

Tuesday's hard training has resulted in some DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) in the thighs, so today was a 20 minute spinning session on the turbo trainer followed by squats on the wobble board.  7 minute warm up on the turbo to begin with to allow for muscle suppleness, followed by lower body stretching on the following muscle groups:

Calves
Hamstrings
Quadriceps
Adductors
Abductors

Once the muscles were stretch, it was time to hop on the turbo and buold up to steady a steady 60rpm for 5 minutes.  Spinning increased to 80 rpm in moderate level twice, for a duration of 3-4 minutes and was enough to challenge the heart and lungs and maintain a steady heart rate of 140bpm for 15 mins overall.

Going Good

Tuesday's training consisted of lower body and cardio work using the steps.  I was pondering whether to mix some stepping with cycling tonight, having not had the chance to get out on the bike as planned on Sunday (despite a steady state training session)

Obviously the training so far has paid off - 25 minutes on the stepper, with a steady 40 incline steps per minute, with 3 sets of interval training for 1 minute.  First interval was 63 steps, 59 and then 66! Max heart rate peaked at 191 and average heart rate at 147!

The previous steady state step training was 36 steps per minute just over 3 weeks ago (at a push) - now its 40 with less effort - A good increase.  I've calculated that on this pace, bearing in mind i'm going up one step and down 1 step (whereas tower 42 is continuous upward stapping) I  can roughly double this figure.  This means my present training should allow me to complete all 920 steps in under 12 minutes!

For the next week - this level will be maintained.

What is tower running?

Tower running is an event where anyone from amateurs to professionals ascend the highest and tallest towers and man made structures accross the globe.  This year on March 1st, Shelter UK is holding a sponsored event at Tower 42 in London.  It also features on the calendar of world stair running championships.  There are 42 storeys and 920 steps!

The best training is stairs themselves, but equally as good beleive it or not is cycling, in fact the record holder for the New York stair climbing was a professional cyclist!

Our trainer Al is a regular cyclist and will be incorporating cycling into the training.  He will be publishing regular training blogs and giving updates on the highs and lows!

Keep a lookout!

Heavy start to today's training

It was a cold damp day outside and I had planned to do a 40 mile dash on the winter training bike to build up cardio and lower body using a great course which includes a mixture of mostly flat/hills.

However, I decided to use my internal gym instead!  A good 10 minute warm up was then followed by lower body stretching.

The trusty turbo trainer for cardio and resistance session was then used.  The gym team discvered the cable was damaged and was running the turbo and level 5 out of level 7 resistance and the arrow marker has gone broken off!

Inverted switch housing showing damaged casing

Careful consideration was given to the aerobic curve as this meant interval training could not be safely done!  We managed to maintain a steady state training of 20 minutes on 60 rpm (excluding warm up and warm down).  Average heart rate was 135 - so all was not lost!

A short rest and further specific lower body training took us to just past the hour. Legs felt they had a good session!