A New Approach

Ho hum. A not very auspicious start to the blog I know. But it is early doors and I have been training so let’s keep things in perspective.

So what have I been up to? Well, lots and lots of turbo work, and very little out on the road. I have found a “sort of club” that do a ride every Saturday in the Surrey hills and I’m dead keen to join them but for various reasons, including working for the last three and next two weekends, being knocked off my bike by a white van man (which led to swollen elephant knee and buckled front wheel), and the fact that it involves being up at 7am on a Saturday I am yet to make it out. So I have done a minimum of 3 maximum of 5, hour-long turbo sessions a week and ridden to and from work every day that I’m in the office. I’m not going to lie, it’s dull.

The lack of coach is actually beginning to ruin my morale, mainly because I made some pretty good progress in the early days with Simon and the 80% world of pain he introduced me to, losing weight, getting fitter and all that jazz. Whereas now I have reached what I think in exercise parlance is known as a plateau. There are several reasons for this in my own expert opinion 1) is that I have lost sufficient weight to fit into a size 12 and vanity, as much as I may veil it in a cloak of earnest desire to succeed in a physical challenge, is my main motivator 2) I am totally clueless when it comes to exercise, I want to see quick easily measurable improvements and when that stops happening I find it hard to motivate myself 3) I have begun to wonder if there is not more to life than taking my turbo with me on business trips so I can train in my hotel room after meetings (I kid you not)

So I have decided to take on a new attitude and deal with my issues one by one

1) The “Vanity” Issue

I know it makes me a very shallow person, and that there is more to life than looks, but to be honest I don’t care, it works for me. And as much as I like being a size 12 there is still considerable room for improvement in the whole “hot bikini body” quest. So I have set myself a target of losing another 10kg. So, embracing the small targets approach, I have decided that by the Cheshire Cat in 5 weeks I want to have lost 4kgs.

2) The “what the f*^k am I doing” issue

I have taken the bull by the horns and sent my proposed programme for the next 5 weeks to my “friend in the know”. He has promised to send me a revised, hard-core, get-results, no-messing-around programme. I should have it this evening when I do I’ll post it.

3) The “is there more to life than this” Issue

Hmmm not when training for the etape there isn’t. So I have decided that success in 1 and 2 will give me enough satisfaction that I won’t worry about having no social life and alienating my friends. I have also decided to give up booze altogether until the Cheshire Cat, thus meaning my evenings will be boring all the time and thus a turbo session may begin to seem like a fun and stimulating alternative to the monotony.

So there we have it. The next phase has begun. Fully reinvigorated and ready to go.

Which is lucky because I got my entry and hotel confirmation through today.

18 weeks to go.

Crap.