Another week of weather has kept me indoors again, for most part.  The hour I spent clearing the drive with my 3 year old son is being claimed as a workout.  My back certainly knew about it the next morning.  

It's been an interesting week.  More snow keeping me indoors on the spin bike, again trying to vary my workouts.  A long slow grind, an interval session and a mock hilly climb.  A couple of squash sessions, the last session I got my a$$ handed to me by a near on pensioner, reinorcing how far I still have to go.  I also flew back to Shetland to catch up with friends and family before 'Up Helly Aa' on Tuesday.  The Clickimin Leisure Complex proving yet again to be an outstanding facility.  A nice cardio session followed by weights then a 'steam and swim' to finish the session.

Hopefully this will be the last of the cold snap and I can get back outdoors again later this week.  The West Highland Way trip in February is getting postponed to a free weekend in the summer and is being replaced with an 80mile recce of the Caledonia Etape.  I've never cycled the course beore and would like to get a real idea of the challenge I face in May and find out how far off fitness I really am... My head already knows the answer but I think my body needs a wake-up call!

I was hoping to get some nice long road miles in this week to help build my base stamina (that I so badly neglected in the last quarter of 2012), but for me it simply wasn't possible so I had to improvise.

I went out for a couple of runs using my old Solomon goretex trainers, I'd forgotten how good they were - great shoe.  Conditions weren't best suited to fast times but it got the heart rate going and got some much needed fresh air in the lungs.  I had a couple of games of squash / rest days from the bike.  Spent a decent amount of time on that spin bike that I thought was a waste of money (now looks like it might have been a master stroke - thanks Russell) and of course, I took my new (new to me) mountain bike out for her maiden voyage.

Think it might be the most fun I've had on a bike for a while and trying to pedal up those short sharp hills with the back wheel spinning away certainly got the lactic fired up.  I pulled together a short video (in the "New Adventures" section), I don't think it's going to receive any oscar nominations but it was a bit of fun.

Back to the spin bike / turbo trainer or whatever anyone has for indoor cardio.  Not sure if it's just me but I have problems maintaining a heart rate above about 130, where as outside I struggle to keep it below 150-160.  And indoors 30 mins feels like an hour and an hour feels like an eternity.  The only thing I can console myself with at the moment is that every hour spent on that thing makes the hills of the Cairngorms just that fraction easier, and therefore more enjoyable!

Week 2 was a bit of a mixed bag.  I felt definite improvements in my general fitness.  Hills seem slightly easier... sorry let me re-phrase that.  The hills are just as hard, but I'm getting slightly faster.  Weight has stayed the same, no gains there.  Didn't get any long miles in at the weekend, but I did manage to watch united pick up 3 points.

Week 3 is about re-focusing for me.  I've got 10 weeks until the Wheelers hit the hills in Majorca / Mallorca, to cover some long tough miles.  My major weakness being long miles and long hills.  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a legal cure for that so it's just going to have to be long stints in the saddle and mix it up as much as possible.  In an attempt to mix it up I'm planning to do the West Highland Way on a mountain bike in February.  Still needs to be confirmed but I'm working on it (Russell, I'll phone you later), more on that to follow.

The commutes are proving a great way to rack up some easy miles but I don't know if I'm a huge fan of cycling in the snow.  Not because I don't like the cold, more because I don't like how little breaking distance cars allow each other.  But I'll try to get 2 trips per week, minimum.

Also cashed in my birthday and Christmas presents (Wiggle vouchers) and picked up a Garmin 500 at the weekend and a load of reflectors and bike lights, should take the safety up a notch.  Looking forward to viewing my cadence readouts too, I love analysing the rides almost as much as doing them, so the more info the better.  Not quite the "aggrigation of marginal gains" but something along those lines.

So, with re-focus in mind.  I'll be gearing up towards my weekend ride with the Wheelers.  Hopefully get 100km under my belt on Sunday... might take me a while.  Working backwards, I'll try to get an enjoyable 20 miles under my belt on Saturday, maybe try to improve a few of my Strava Segments.  25 mile commute on Friday.  Squash/Rest on Thursday.  Run on Wednesday.  25 mile commute on Tuesday.  Squash and 1hr on the spin bike today. 

Usually I'll get most of my exercise in around the weekend but this weekend coming I'm away to Manchester to watch the footy.  So I've got to plan ahead and try to fit a bit more cardio in through the week.

Monday - Recovery day/break from the bike, so played 50mins of squash with Andy from work.  We're both fairly novice (polite way of putting it) so there's quite a bit of chasing the ball around.  Good for spiking the heart rate.  Guess 400 kcal burn.

Tuesday - Looks like it will be good for a cycle to work (courtesy of BBC weather and some negotiating with the better half).  That will clock up 23 miles all in.  That will likely be my usual interval training with a few sprint sections and a few easy spin sections.  That should be 1,000 kcal in the bank.

Wednesday - As per bargaining agreements for cycling on Tuesday, I've pulled nursery drop off and pick up duties.  So I'll try to get up early and get a 5k run done before work.  Guess 300 kcal.

Thursday - 30min spin before work followed by an 60min spin after work.  That should be combined 800 kcal.

Friday - A negotiated commute should get some fresh air in the lungs and another 1,000 kcal burned off.

Saturday - Will be an early depart and a 6 hour drive.  A very early 10k run should get the blood pumping and circa 600 kcal bagged.  

Sunday - Will hopefully start with a hangover so maybe place an order for room service and nip out for a 20min jog round the streets while tea and toast gets brought up.  250kcal burn, maybe enough to compensate for one of the previous night's pints!  

Estimated 4,350 kcal burn for the week.  But more importantly, more miles in the tank!  

Firstly, huge apology to the Wheelers.  A comedy of errors meant that I was late leaving the house, I made pursuit along South Deeside but I ran out of puff.  It was maybe a blessing in disguise as I am a LONG way off being able to complete a 60mile spin.

Well, I was going to go for an easy jog this morning but when I finally rose from my slumber I peeked through the curtains and instantly changed my mind.  I find that I can quite happily go for a jog when it's wet and windy, but cycling in that is just a bit less safe.  So with that, I decided to make hay and enjoy the morning.

With one eye on tomorrow's ride with the wheelers I decided I would try to aim for 20 miles.  Keep it fairly easy for most... easier said than done.  I set off fairly comfortably but within 5 minutes I was up to my old tricks and racing myself to the next junction and trying to grind out hill sections.  If you go to the top of the page and click on the "Garmin Connect" button you can see what I got up to (let me know if the link doesn't work).  I did have the presence of mind to stop every now and again to take a photo, swig some water and generally enjoy the quiet roads.

Having recently moved house, I'm fairly new to the roads around Aberdeenshire.  But by the looks of things I could almost take a different route every time.  Lots of parallel roads, a variety of hills and loops.  I think I'll try to make a top 5 list later in the proceedings, but the one this morning is going to be hard to shake.  I saw 3 cyclists and about 5 cars (until I rejoined the main road for the last 4-5 miles).

4 days in and my supplemental Christmas weight has gone. I just need to shift the other 15-20lbs, I sneaked on over the last 2 years...

Typically it takes me about 40mins to drive across town in the morning and about 45mins to drive back at night.  I cycled there in 41mins this morning and back in 49mins.  For those mathematically minded, that's an initial loss of 5 mins... then there's the shower required at each end.  But that should only be 1 extra shower as presumably most folk have 1 shower per day anyway.  So that's an additional 10mins.  Total loss = 15mins.

Well, it's worked as a motivation already.  First day back at work after the festive, got the boy to bed by 8pm... destined for the couch with the exception that I set myself a challenge.  So I body swerved the couch, dragged myself back up stairs and yanked the lycra shorts out of the sock drawer (might need a new filing system), wheeled the spinner out of the kitchen and decided I would go for the 300 Kcal interval spin.

25mins later the spin was done and the bath was running.  Usually I'd be reaching for the next round of pancakes to go with my coffee, but I'm topping up the water bottle and downloading info onto Garmin Connect (should be the most recent activity on my "Garmin Connect" button at the top of the page).

Planning tomorrow to be a cycle to work day.  Don't mind if it's wet, just not a huge fan of the wind...

Thought I would set out my stall for the year:
 
Plan A - Have New Year's Day off from exercise (check), then do some exercise every day up until 29th September, then I'm having a week or two off.

Not a completely random goal.  If the cycling calendar goes as per last year, AWCC will have a nice 10m TT on Saturday 28th September where I'll aim for a PB (between you and me I'm aiming to go sub 22mins).  The 29th also happens to be my son's birthday, so a good time to hang up the lycra for a rest and let the leg hair grow back.

Along the way I've got a few milestones penciled in (before anyone complains, I've got atrocious spelling and not enough enthusiasm to figure out the spell check - bear with me).  First up, cycle the West Highland Way in February - this could be weather dependant.  A week tackling the hills in Mallorca in March, the Caledonia Etape in May, the Alps in June or July, some local road races and a few time trials to finish off.

This, of course, all depends on staying injury free and getting on the good side of the better half...