Monday 8 August 2011

Year so far

Woe its been a bit busy recently and I haven't had chance to reflect on what I have achieved this year.  My goals for this season was to lose weight and take part in some competitive cycling.  Well I think I achieved booth of these goals.  I have lost 2 stone in weight and kept it off, I took part in my first Mountain Bike event and I have taken part in three time trials. 

What have i learnt?  I have learnt that goal setting is a huge part of this sport.  I set goals and worked hard to achieve them although I have covered less mileage than last year mainly due to being occupied with getting my coaching sorted I am still happy.

It is now time to start thinking forward.  I have the Manchester 100 in September and that will be my last event of 2011.  I need to think what I want to achieve next year and how I am going to do it.  Competitive cycling is one of my goals and I need to use my skills learnt as a coach to start implementing this. 

If any one has any ideas for a good winter training programme please drop me a message....

Thanks

Monday 1 August 2011

Wow its been a while

It seems like ages since I posted on here.  So what have I been up to?  Coaching, Road Cycling, MTB and Time Trialing.

4 weeks ago myself and two club members started coaching kids in North Cheshire Clarion Kids Club which teaches kids additional skills to improve there riding and to help to develop a competitive nature.  So far it is amazing and it's something I am very passionate about.  Seeing someones skills improve during a session is a great feeling and knowing that, it drives me on.

I have now taken part in three time trials.  Yes I know I swore I wouldn't do it again, but the element of competitive racing is starting to kick in.  I want to race either against myself or others and TTing is filling that need.  My first time over 8.75 miles was 26.24 minutes, this came down to 25.40 and then last week I did a 25.45.  I was actually very annoyed with myself as I wanted to take time out of it not slow down.  I felt great on the way out on the way back I struggled and I have now learned to back off a bit on the way out.

In terms of road riding I actually went out on a Sunday club ride this week and ended up doing 60 miles with some great hill climbing.  I have noticed that my riding attitude has changed since Rough Ride.  At Rough Ride I struggled with the mental aspect of it, the weather, the climbs etc all got into my head and I bottled it before I started.  Now, I see every hill as a challenge and every ride as something to enjoy instead of worrying about what it will entail. 

Im loving my riding again and I love the coaching.  I will keep this up to date a bit more now but for now i'm off to finish off my paperwork for the final day of my coaching qualification.