Monthly Update - March 2016

And just when I thought that I'd managed to catch up with some of the distance lost over the first couple of months (at least with the running side of my challenge), it's all gone a bit Pete Tong again!

However the good thing from the month is that I have actually been out on the bike, it's not been much but I have been out pottering along the canal on the mountain bike which certainly made the ride on the road a lot tougher but did mean that I could ride pretty much anywhere even though it had been chucking down with rain for the previous couple of days! The weather seemed to be my main excuse for not getting out running or cycling, the swimming excuse was that I just didn't want to get out of bed! Haha

The other excuse I managed to give myself was Ali injuring herself in the middle of the month, which is definitely not the thing to do given that she had her marathon in Paris right at the beginning of April - because I'm a nice person (and I seem to find nearly every excuse) I didn't exercise very much at all after that because it would have meant going out without her which for her was on a par in annoyance of being injured in the first place!

April's a new month though, and is the being of events for the year for me, and the major sporting event of the year for April with the Paris Marathon. Let's just see what it holds!!

One Life - Live It, Love It 

Tree Hugging

"aw, aw, aw... dead leg, dead leg, dead leg!!"

It's funny how things always come in three's isn't it?... bouts of bad luck, Bradley Wiggins' Tour de France bikes (see later)... and in this case- tree stumps..! Only thing is that it is the first of three that my partner Ali is currently hugging (she obviously hasn't read the script).

We're out mountain biking in Leigh Woods on the outskirts of Bristol, and it's obvious that neither of us are

very used to these bikes on this terrain and the lack of cleats. Ali has only been road cycling for 6 months now, and whilst I don't have that much more experience on the road than her we're both much more used to dodging potholes and puddles instead of slippery rocks and trees. Being out on the MTB's is great fun, but

also what I'm hoping to make quite a key part of my winter training- it's much harder work and really helps to improve bike handling so I'm hoping that when I do hop back on the road then I'll see a difference!

I've actually been out on the MTB quite a bit, what with the threats of an early Arctic winter for the UK I'm quite happy to get on with the hard work of riding HUGE tyres on the ride to ensure that I'm staying upright for the off-season. I'm hoping that this'll help with strength training for next year- only time will tell I suppose (and Strava times!)

In other, far more national, news- how many people saw that one of Sir Brad's 2012 TdF bikes was up for sale? If you've kept an eye on the BBC sport pages then you might have seen that one lucky chappy one one of these and has just sold it through the London Bike Exchange, now whilst some people have apparently given him a load of stick for doing this, saying that he is ungrateful etc etc most people must be able to see where he is coming from? I mean, how many people can afford to keep a bike that they don't ride at home, and if so then how many of us have space to fit a bike up on the wall?!!

Copyright: London Bike Exchange

Hopefully in the next week or two I'll have more chance to get out on the bike(s) and get some more training milage under my belt- even if it is on the turbo trainer!

Keep an eye on here, every Tuesday between 7 and 8pm (UK time) for the weekly blog post. And please share with anyone else who you think would enjoy reading!


Keep 'em Spinning!

Robo.