Long time, no write

I would like to start by saying that I have been genuinely busy and hugely rubbish at keeping up with my blog. I know that. I feel bad, but let's move on. I am guessing in these early days no-one has been pining for my latest installment anyway.

What have I been doing I hear you cry (mum). Well as mentioned I now have my turbo trainer in situ - it's pretty darned good too, tres easy to use and even needs plugging in (which if I'm honest I don't really understand but none the less like the cycling lemming I am I plug it in whenever I use it.) Which brings me neatly to using it. It's tough. A friend of mine who knows a thing or two about this training stuff suggested that sticking to my current as-long-as-I-can-at 80%-max-heart0-rate approach may lead to insanity when not out on the open road so gave me what can only be described as a bonkers little interval session to do. It involves getting on and riding for 10mins at 80% max heart rate in the big ring - lowest gear. Then moving down the gears riding each on for a minute until the hardest gear then coming back up again. Then riding at 80% for 10 minutes and repeating. It's mental. It really hurts but I'm figuring it must be good for me.... I hope.

So I've been doing that. And when I've been in the office I've been riding to and from work - which is a 28km round trip commute through central London (Shepherds Bush to London Bridge) and I just recently went to LA for some meetings and decided to take my bike, stay in a relatively nice area next to the Pacific Coast Highway and get out on the open roads. It was lovely and I did about 7 hours in total with a great 3 hour ride on the first day.

The coach who was helping me seems to have disappeared off the radar so I am now coach-less and taking advice from a variety of well intentioned, well informed friends and colleagues. David is totally useless when it comes to training advice - generally he tells me to ride as hard as I can for as long as I can - so I am now on the hunt for a new programme as I feel a little directionless at the moment and the Cheshire Cat looms heavy on my conscience. Which is not good.

PS I now have power cranks on my bike! And a funny little red box on my handlebars that tells me my cadence, power output, speed and heart rate. No idea what power is all about. But it's cool. I feel profee.