53x12

Sometimes Life has a way of feeling like you're putting in massive amounts of effort and not seeing much gain but with everything still moving really fast. For me moving house is like this, and it's only in the last day that things have started coming together.
The best thing is it's starting to feel like home.



For the cycling geeks reading this, the title is 53x12 not 53x11 because I don't use cassettes with an 11 tooth cog. This is because in 'cross I rarely use the 12 so having an 11 is only taking away a gear I could use mid block, and (now really nerdy) on my road racing wheels I use a Campagnolo 12-23 cassette is a straight block through to 19 with 21-23 tagged on the top, the benefit of this is getting an 18 tooth cog, which is missed out if you run a 11-23 cassette. It's a bit old school but 53x18 is a gear I can pedal all day long and 39x18 is a climbing gear which I can push knowing I've got a couple of lesser options should the gradient increase.
Told you it was geeky.

Around 186bpm

The best way to find your maximum heart rate is riding at full gas, on a turbo, for 8 minutes, at night, in a freezing cold garage, whilst sweating profusely and keeping your cadence above 120rpm.
At least that's the way I did it last night. My first coaching session was more of a 'field test' to work about the zones I need to train in. It feels good to have some saddle time and confidence steady growing again.

I want to do this.

French Supermoto 2010 - www.pocprod.com from Thibaud POULAIN / POCPROD on Vimeo.

Just trying to be someone I talk to in the morning with a smile.

It's been too long since a proper entry.
At the moment our world is upside down, with splitting time between work and getting the new house ready. My shifts aren't allowing me to be involved as much as I'd like but Katherine's doing a cracking job at getting everything organised. Also I've had the cold/flu, which has been doing the rounds, it has basically robbed me of all energy and left me a bit absent minded and short of patience.
Today was the first morning where I didn't feel like crap in about a week, so I took the chance to get out for the first road ride of the year. Three hours and 50 odd steady miles has destroyed me to put it simply. I've decided that this Summer is basically building fitness for cyclocross in Autumn/Winter, this should mean I can build steadily and use road racing as a stepping stone rather than it being the only thing I'm focusing on. My upcoming longer commute should help my mileage total each month too, while at the same time I'm building my 'cross bike up sooner this year to do a lot more skill training and hopefully Summer racing after work.
The 'cross bike is going through a couple of changes this year. Stripping it down to the bare essentials with racing being the main priority, probably 1x10 gearing, a little HOPE equipment and tubulars for the first time.
This year I've decided to ride only for Here Come the Belgians and not join Clifton, it was something I thought a lot about but some recent events pushed me towards my decision. I still plan to ride some of their events but I'd like to take a back seat from the politics and concentrate on my own riding.

Say What.

We are now house owners.

I am now Cytech level two qualified.

I have a cycling coach.



Getting older and wiser one day at a time.