It's been that long???

I've just realised that I've not made any blog entries for nearly 20 days!!! and the reason why? Snow and I've had a man cold...

January started off fairly well with plenty of turbo sessions all going to some sort of random plan - I've yet to decide what training plan I intend to follow in the run up to the Cheshire Cat but I'm pretty certain it will be the Chris Carmichael one. It's only 10 weeks away so I will have to start the plan next week or the week after...

So where was I? ah yes the man cold... Wasn't that bad a cold but I know from past experience that when I get any sort of illness it takes a lot to get rid of and it's easy to make matters worse if I don't take care. What that means for me is NO bike - not even a mild turbo session, so no bike activities from Friday 8th Jan. That weekend the snow slush and black ice was still around in heaps from the week before and that meant no club run so I didn't feel so bad about being ill and staying in. During the next week there was a thaw and that allowed the club to thankfully plan for a ride for the following Sunday. I wanted to go I really did but even though my cold was mostly gone, I had a cough I couldn't get rid of and my pulse was 20 to 30 bpm up on normal which is a dead give-away that I wasn't right so reluctantly on the night before the ride I decided it cancel my ride with the clubs first ride of 2010 - write up by fellow Clarionista Phil here.

The cough had gotten a little better after the weekend so on Monday 10 days after the last time I parked my bum on a bike I finally felt well enough to have a go on my turbo. I rode for an hour with the idea of an easy ride keeping my speed at around 15 -16 mph and with a HR of less that 150 which is my norm for an easy ride. Learning from previous occasions I know that on my first ride back after illness my HR would be up and it certainly was - my HR was 160 bpm @ 15mph, 10 to 20 bpm up from normal at that speed on that turbo trainer. Today (Wed) I've still got a slight cough but today's ride with the same aim had my HR back in the normal range so I'm getting better at last and just in time, on the clubs forums there's talk of a hilly ride that includes a personal favourite climb of mine in Willington called Chapel Lane which is a particularly steep (in places) but pleasurable climb. My record for my quickest time up Chapel Ln is 6 min 41 seconds but I think this coming Sunday I will be aiming just to get to the top without collapsing in a heap. Any other time and I would be raring to go but so early after my 'recovery' I envision a thoroughly nasty time, still going to give it a good go though......