ED's Exploits - Don't Look Back

Well the end of season break has come and gone and I have already started some more structured training. I have always liked to plan the week/month ahead as I find it allows me to concentrate and just get on with it, without having to think what I am going to do. Of course at this time of the year it’s all about base building, stamina work. For the bike, traditionally that has meant getting the miles in, while that is still the case, more and more I favour more specific endurance work. Using a heart rate monitor or watts to measure specific work is a much better way of working and it is less time consuming. It is, perhaps, not so much fun, going out on the bike for 4 hours and “see what happens” is a good crack, so I tend to do a bit of both, structured in the week, go with the flow on Sundays.

It’s traditional to look back at this time of the year and I do wallow in a little nostalgia now and again, especially after a beer, so here is a review of my year:
January: Ice & Snow
February: Snow & Ice
March: “I am going well”
April: “I am not going as well as I thought!”
May: Crashed
June: “Oh England”
July: Italian Mountains = good form
August: A WIN!!
September: Tried Hard
October: Older but not Wiser
November: Surprisingly good training
December: Christmas shopping online is not right, so why do I do it?...Mmm and back to Snow and Ice again!


I first got involved in triathlon right back in the early days in the eighties. My first race was the European Short Course Champs in ‘87 at Milton Keynes. 1,200 m swim, 30 mile bike, 7 mile run, I think - no standard distances in those days. The water was 54 degrees, it was freezing. The continentals were allowed wetsuits but in those days the Brits were not allowed to wear them. The British Triathlon Association, as it was then probably thought they were not “sporting”. In any case I did not own one, so just did it in my Tri-Suit, and it was bloody cold. I seem to remember not many people behind me when I eventually came out of the water. Amazingly the police had closed the A5 dual carriageway for the bike leg, so it was easy to warm up on the fast flat ride. A few minutes before the start, I would happily have been anywhere else than beside that frigid lake. A few minutes after the end of the run I did not want to be anywhere else in the world. No? I don’t understand it either, but I was hooked!
I always like to get out on the bike for an hour or two on Christmas morning, I like to earn my lunch and it always tastes better. It makes me feel a little smug as well, knowing I have done some training when others may have not. Come the season it does not make the slightest bit of difference, but I keep on doing it anyway. Boxing Day usually involves the tandem and some beer, probably undoing all the good work of the previous days ride. Ho Ho Ho!
That’s enough nostalgia for one year; I am looking forward to the spring and some warm sunshine! Be careful on that ice, “If in Doubt, get the Turbo out”.

See you up the Road…