Base, Base, Base

Still no camera i'm afraid... looking foorward to being able to putting some pics to my words although not sure about the self taken action shots i've seen other riders taking.. not sure i got the skills:)

The week has seen another christmas come and go... crazy how fast time flys as you get older..

No rest for thhe wicked though and it was business as usual, the start of the week saw alot of cross training with a little trainer work leading up to a great weekend for road riding.

In with the mix of running and swimming saw a fresh challenge thrown at me by Mark ( Forgy), stair running, yup running up stairs for 40 minutes!!! I chose a set of stairs that are at King Edwards Bay, Tynemouth.
The stairs go from the sea to the top of the cliff, about 10 sets of about 12 steps each... this is one of the toughest things i have had to do yet.. Rachel commented that i looked fresher at the finish of Dusk Till Dawn this year than i did after this session.

Must say that i am really enjoying mixing it up with different training... i won't kid anybody that using muscles that usually lie dormant doesn't hurt as it does... amazing how much a 30 minute run can haunt you for a few days with nice stiff legs.

Friday saw another first for me.. while christmas shopping i found some discounted yoga dvd's for beginners so invested £5 to see what all the fuss was about.
The workout is 37 minutes long starting with some very basic stretching working onto some more involved stuff... you can really feel it working though and i felt a little looser after completing it. Gonna continue doing the dvd when i have a scheduled rest day and might even look at more advanced stuff later on:)

Saturday and sunday saw some half decent weather for some longer rides....

Saturday was down as a mountain bike ride but without transport and in the centre of Nottingham it wasn't possible so i went out on the Clarion club run.
Good choice as the route was one that i hadn't done and couldn't find it again if i tried but in short it was nicely hilly... in that the climbs were long and sustained but not too steep.
Punctured within the first mile of the club ride, bit of glass through dead centre of tyre, thank goodness for C02 inflators.. thanks again to TYREINFLATORS.CO.UK... changing tube was a quick affair.
Headwind on the final leg home wasn't appreciated but served to allow me to easily do the tempo session in zone 4 that had to be included into the ride.
After 5 hours and over 70 miles i got home with over 3 hours being spent in in zone 2/3.

Sunday was out with Darren (Buckby) again, after last weeks nightmare wasn't sure what to expect.
The general idea was a ride to Rutland water, neither me or Darren knew a route so just winged it from some vague directions given by another Clarion member.
As it goes it was a great ride.. weather was so much nicer than last weekend.. the winds from saturdays riding had gone and its always good to try out new routes.
Typical of Vale riding it had its fair share of climbing, nothing in size to that in the peaks but what it lacked in quality it made up for in quantity.
As the day was down for 4 hours base instead of going all the way to Rutland we stopped short at Oakham and winged a route back to Melton Mowbray.. not before finding more cheeky climbing and adding a little more distance trying to avoid the A606 main road.
A great winters ride on the road.. EXACTLY 4 hours to the second and another 70 miles:)

Off to the lakes tomorrow to do some walking and maybe riding some riding.. hopefully with pics:)