Muffins, not fluffins

Those of you who see my facebook status may recall the fluffins. Well, second attempt and I am happy to describe these as muffins.

Ups and downs

Ups - two gym sessions, good couple of turbo sessions (4 BTVS episodes), good early ride to work.
Downs - Crank arm falling off the Scandal riding to work, realising how much a Torq Recovery addiction could cost me, tweaking a quadricep during an impromtu 5-a-side at work.
Horizonals - That old bag of frozen peas I've been using for injuries for several years is really hanging in there.

I think I'm on drugs

It was quite chilly, and very icy underwheel. My concentration was divided between avioding the frozen sections, listening to MP3s and keeping a keen eye on the traffic. I did a route that I've done a couple of times, except this time a bit longer and a bit backwards.

So far, nothing interesting. However, when I got back after three and a half hours, I broke open my new Torq Recovery, Strawberries and Cream flavour. I've used other flavours of the recovery before when I was at the training camp in Spain, but I've never used them at home due to them tasting ever so slightly nasty. The new flavour is just on the right side of palettable so I invested in a tub, mainly to use at work after riding in. My usual recovery mix is Frijj milkshakes with ribose mixed in, but they don't sell them at work and I'd rather not carry one in each day. The Torq powder can be stored at work for use when needed, so problem solved.

After a longish ride I'm normally a little tired - an hour dozing on the sofa whilst listening to the football is fairly standard - so I put on some Sigur Ros, pulled a fleecy blanket over myself and settled down... to nothing. I was wide awake. No sleepiness, no lethargy. Only a feeling of being full of energy, which has lasted to, well, 20:41 so far. Is it the Torq stuff? We'll see, but given that it contains lots of stuff I've never heard of (L-glutamine, HMB) I'm pretty sure that it must be.

Of course, I may crash asleep in the next 5 minutes..............zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ice ice baby

Tested the knee last night on the turbo with the first two episodes of BTVS series 2 - I don't think I saw much of that series, certainly not seen the first two. Starting to get darker than series one already, and Buffy is looking slightly more buff.

I've looked out of the window this morning to see lots and lots of ice, and my new outside temperature sensor tells me it's 1.6C. Brrrrrr.

Right, off to town for a haircut, then I'll brave the outside for a road ride. I hope to report later.

Second event, first injury

Completed my second event of the year, the Gorrick XC race at Yateley. Apparently the course was going to be quick, flowing, interesting and fun. Then it rained for 24 hours. As if by magic the course was slick, boggy, sticky, gloopy and not fun. About half way round my first lap (of three) I remembered how much I hate short XC races - riding at pretty much threshold for a couple of hours doesn't really feel good to me - especially when I fell off (three times). This was OK as the surface was so wet it was a soft landing... or so I thought.

I finished the race (33rd out of 59! Yay!), and after a bit of a chat with some friends (one of whom dislocated her shoulder and broke a bone at the same time, a few months ago) I went back to Darren's car to get out of my very muddy gear. My second fall had been due to misjudging the depth and sloppiness of a section, so I'd come off at reasonable speed, dunking myself in two foot of grit, mud and water. As you can imagine, I wasn't clean. Anyway, taking my leggings off I noticed a bit of a gash on my left knee - probably caused by a flint, or bit of glass - full of crap and gaping open, fair bit of blood around too. Hmm... it was cold out so I felt no pain, it was one of those "how the hell did I get that?" moments. As a highly trained first aider I squirted water on it to remove the worst of the grit, but soon ran out. Ah well, off to the medical tent (actually an ambulance!).

The first aid people were the same ones I'd done my first aid at work course with, so I had a pleasant chat with the paramedic-ess as she cleaned up my knee. The wound was a bit awkward, but not too serious and she reckoned that A&E may not even bother gluing it, so she put some steri-strips on it and advised me to give it a good soak in a hot bath.

So, after getting home, I followed the advice then went out to get some steri-strips all of my own (driven by Darren). Then while Darren, Chrisie and Elaine went out for a bracing walk I had a doze on the the sofa. Oddly, when I got up a bit later, the back of my right knee had really, really stiffened up - so now I was limping with both legs, in different ways. Cool. I couldn't bend the left leg due to the cut, and I couldn't straighten the right leg because of the spasm. Try walking with those and not looking like a freak.

So that was the Gorrick. Oh, Darren came 8th. Fit bastard.

11 down

Not a crossword reference, but to note that I've nearly finished series one on the 144EOBTVSTP, eleven episodes completed, one to go. Series two will be much harder, being a whole twenty-two!

So, I did the SPAM Winter Challenge this year, after missing the past three years through illness. It was super cold (-8C!) but not very frosty - shame because I'd packed my camera. The course was a bit dull, but I bimbled round on the singlespeed with Caroline. It was good to get out though, bit of a kick start after Christmas. There were a few icy, steep sections that I was pleased to get up, especially as several people were walking. There was also one icy, flat section that somehow put me on the ground, but we just won't mention that.

I went to the trouble of buying some overshoes so that my toes wouldn't resemble tiny frozen chipolatas. They certainly helped - feet were slightly cold, but I didn't lose feeling and I wasn't wracked with pain as they warmed up. I also bought a funny under-the-helmet hat that makes me look like I've had major skull surgery. I haven't.

This week has been a few turbo sessions, a gym session and a run. I should be out on a real bike tomorrow after work, which I'm looking forward to. The slight fly in the minty-arse-lard is that I'm off alcohol for January again, and the post-ride pint is the one I really really missed last year. I shall try to hold things together when we get to the pub...

Better start training

I've now entered two things for next year - 24/12 12 hour solo (again), and "The Dragon Ride". The first holds no fear, as I sort of did it this year. The second is a 183km road sportive with 3500m of climbing, or something like that. Probably quite hard. It'll be even harder if I don't start to feel a little motivated and begin training. The past few days all my Christmas intentions have been paving the road to hell - I did 35 mins riding on Boxing Day, went for a run on Christmas Eve, but that's about it. So, I need a plan...

"The 144 Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Training Plan"

I didn't get many bike related things for Christmas (just a Twin Six T-Shirt, which is cool, and maybe some stuff that hasn't been delivered yet), so I've decided to tag the comnplete Buffy box set as being bike related by planning to watch it whilst doing all my turbo sessions. I reckon if I can get through six or so episodes a week then the sheer quality of the turbo sessions will set me up in good stead for all the other riding I need to do. Obviously I used the first two episodes to think of this plan, so only 142 to go! Brilliant. Starts tomorrow, honest.

Empty shops, muddy bikes and a present

I couldn't believe how empty the shops were at 10am (when I'd finished my shopping). Last Saturday before Christmas I thought it would be like a scene from Lord of the Rings, mass battles over gold rings, that sort of stuff. But no, either everyone couldn't get out of bed or they were very organised or they just weren't buying. I did my best and got a few things - shirt, pants, all very exciting. Best of all was stopping at Halfords on the way home and finally deciding to buy a proper tool chest - a present for myself. It's big, red and has ball bearing drawers! My tools are now much better organised and I no longer run the risk of severing a tendon whilst rummaging around in the bottom of a dark plastic box.

I also went out on the singlespeed and got proper muddy. I took some pictures but the visual evidence doesn't really correlate with how muddy I felt I was getting. Either I haven't been muddy for a while and was therefore over estimating how dirty I was, or my new teflon shower gel is having some effect.

The assault begins

Thought i'd fight the christmas shopping crowds, just for fun. No real christmas shopping to do, but i might get a few things for myself. Traditional start to shopping, caffe nero.

Trained but not assessed

Tim, Darren and I did our SMBLA Trail Cycle Leader training this week. It was fun, I learnt stuff, I ate stuff and I drank stuff. Oh, and met some very nice people too. Most of it was pretty much common sense, and the whole course was run with that attitude - not in the super-prescriptive fashion I was expecting from the book.

We did the course in the Lake District and had an amazing day out - the kind of cold, crispy, still, sunny, blue-skied day that all the best winter riding needs. Big icy puddles to crack through, glistening frost on the moors, snow on the hill tops... I feel almost poetic thinking about it. Oh, and I used a combined sink/urinal for the first time.

We've still got to arrange the assessment day, and we might even do a coaching course too... we shall see.