Friday 30 May 2008

Biking again


At last! And I've also discovered that I can blog from my phone - praise be to Sony Ericsson. It was a fairly gentle ride but there was the odd flash of "I've done this before" happening. Six others were out, and you can probably guess from the picture that we ended up at the pub.

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Am I going off road?

I've just realised that I've arranged an "Easy Ride" for the MTB club that I'm chairperson of, where I promised to take out some people who've not really ridden off road before. Thing is, I still haven't ridden properly off road since dislocating, and though I sort of think it'll be fine I am a bit nervous.

  • Fitness - fine, in great shape (but somehow putting a bit of weight back on)
  • "Skillz" - fine, for the route I plan
  • Risk - pretty low, again based on the route I've got planned
  • Consequences of falling off - potentially nasty

So it's one of those "low risk but serious consequences" situations, like riding on a metre wide track by a 1000ft drop. You know that there is virtually no chance of falling, but then again, a stray mountain goat could leap out and send you plummeting to doom.

I think I'll still ride, but I'll be riding the skill-compensator.

Saturday 24 May 2008

Some Kind of Wonderful

1. Doing a five hour ride and still feeling that I could have done more (bottom quite sore though)
2. Eating everything in sight on return (after four Torq Bars and a gel)
3. Hot dogs (see 2)
4. The film (see title)
5. Half Man Half Biscuit - Achtung Bono

Thursday 22 May 2008

Physio, Intervals and Jaffa Cakes

Three things stand out from today. The first was my second NHS physio appointment. I've made good progress apparently, but still need to keep doing the same exercises. The external rotation (image holding your arm by your side with your elbow bent, then rotating the forearm outwards) is still pretty shonky, but she poke, prodded and twisted and I think I've a bit more movement now.

The second was the Jaffa Cakes - I had about 10 of them - my own fault for buying four tubes to entertain people at a lunchtime presentation. I justified this by telling myself they are good energy food.

The third was my first session of anaerobic intervals - I did this outside on the road bike, in the sunshire. Lots of other road bikers out too. Anaerobic intervals involve riding as fast as you can for three minutes, then easing off for five minutes, then repeat - I managed six sets, which I was pleased with. The first didn't really count though as I was held up by a tractor!

Long weekend coming out - I'd really really like to get some long rides in, but I think it'll depend on the weather and how the shoulder is feeling.

Wednesday 21 May 2008

Sprints and Football

Training going ok this week, I've kept (more or less) to plan - although my legs felt empty Tuesday morning. I don't think that hard intervals straight after getting up are recommended.

That sounded a bit rude.

Also - hurrah for the football! I'll say no more...

Monday 19 May 2008

So... tired...

Bit of a busy weekend, and a combination of getting up early, going to bed late and eating and drinking too much has left me very sleepy. Another reason might be my first road bike road (like, on the road and everything) since I fell off. It went well, no locking shoulder sensations in the 50 minutes that I was out. I did notice that when standing up for a sprint/climb the bike sort of pulled to the left - my right arm is obviously weaker and wasn't pulling on the bars as much.

Taking the road bike out also meant I could try my new wheels. They felt just like the old ones. But they are more shiney, which I think is important. Also, I got to play the "take the bike off the turbo" game for the first time, and I've just done the reverse too. My clean jeans from this morning are now my oily jeans. I might not get away with wearing them to work tomorrow.

Right, up at six for some intervals before work....

Sunday 18 May 2008

Yup, that bit works. So what's the point?


I guess it all came from being a bit bored whilst sitting on a turbo trainer in the garage. Some explanation needed?


A turbo trainer is a thing that converts a bike into an exercise bike.


A garage is where you keep junk, and occasionally cars.


I've been spending a lot of time on that trainer recently. I never planned to, but a combination of things has kept me in there for about 9 hours a week.



  1. I wanted to have my best summer riding mountain bikes in various events

  2. I entered some events

  3. I went to Spain for a training camp

  4. I fell off whilst on a "gentle" ride with Jon

  5. I dislocated my shoulder

  6. Ow

  7. Ow, really

  8. I couldn't train on a real bike

  9. I had to get a turbo trainer and spend hours and hours in the garage

So, I've been "dislocated" from the trails to my garage, because I dislocated my shoudler. Hence the name of the blog. Geddit?



First post - are they all called that?

This is a bit of an experiment really - seeing if this external blog to facebook idea works...