I’ve really taken the foot off the gas this month. It is by far the least cycled month but it wasn’t all just laziness. My wife had to work on call two of the weekends, which means she is away from home 24hrs. Needless to say, it takes her a day or two to get back to normal so getting up early on a Sunday morning and leaving her with the kids wouldn’t go down well.
Any spare time I had was finishing off painting around my house, cutting lawns and basically doing chores that I had already been neglecting for my cycling. Cycling in and out of work has also taken a back seat. It’s so busy that the CEO has offered as much overtime as anyone wanted. Seeing as it’s coming up to Christmas and next year is out 10th wedding anniversary I thought I’d knuckle down and earn as much as I can before Christmas. What this means is that I have been doing 12 hour shifts so I can’t afford the extra time I used to cycle in and out of work.
Oh, and the kids have started rugby again so Saturday and Sunday mornings are busy with that.
It’s not all bad though. I’ve started back running again. It takes up less time and gives good results. There’s a six km loop from my doorstep that I have done a few times now. When I get a bit more comfortable with that I’ll do the 10km loop. I’ve also got a few sub 100km rides in and I managed to squeeze in my 200km audax to keep my RRTY attempt alive.
The only chance I had to do it was on a Thursday evening after work. I found a permanent that passes right by where I work, so at 4pm I set off on the Little Carlingford 200. I will have a full write up on the event soon but let me state briefly that it was the worst idea I have ever had.
Just as I left work it rained so I was wet from the start. I had only 60km done before it was dark and being dark early (6.30pm) meant that there was still a lot of traffic on the roads. Normally this wouldn’t bother me be there were several occasions when the oncoming car was blinding me. I was cycling blind for a few seconds at a time and all I could do was hope that there were no potholes on the road.
I found it tough going. It was dark, cold (freezing by the end of it) and because I hadn’t done a long spin in a few weeks it was harder than it should have been. I’m always amazed at how quick the body responds to training and all how quick you lose it if you stop. Anyway, I got it done but I’m now aware that I need to make an extra effort to keep my long spins going.
That’s 10 out of 12. I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch but I can’t see anything stop me from completing my RRTY.
Looking ahead it’s obvious that my Kids are going to be taking up more and more of my attention. I will have to come up with ways to fit in training which will have minimum impact on my family. I already have some ideas such as getting a turbo trainer and signing up to Zwift. This will mean I can train without leaving my home. Also the kids are getting bikes for Christmas. The two older kids are at an age that they can cycle on the local off-road trails. Perhaps could run with them on these trails. I’m going to have to get inventive of I want to keep my fitness up and even surpass it.