Lanza Day 2

Woke up to glorious sunshine this morning. Coffee and toast at breakfast and then off round the loop. Got a few pics this morning on the way round, didn't want to take the camera yesterday because of the rain. The main climb on the route is a tough one, starts at about 5-6% and gets harder and steeper as it continues for about one and a half miles and once you get to the roundabout it gets harder still increasing to approx 12% and then the last part increases again to 20% which is hard going on a 39/21. Over the top and its fast with a good surface fairly flat for a mile and then the decent starts with some great flowing corners. Later on in the route it passes through the lava fields and then along the coast which nice new tarmac and rolling before the fast road home which is straight and gradual decent of about 2% for 3 or 4 miles. Last night I did my volcano run, a 7 mile loop with the climb up the volcano of about 250 meters from the hotel at sea level. A tough run but loving every minute of it. Running the same loop tonight then might be doing my long ride tomorrow of 3 - 4 hours. As you can see I'm adequetly dressed for cycling in February! although still sporting a british winter tan in a nice shade of milk bottle white!

Lanzarote :-)

Well after a couple of weeks training in snow, ice, and general cold gray and wet weather I decided enough is enough. Wednesday last week booked flights and accommodation and flew Sunday to Lanzarote for the week. Had to drag Beth out of school for a week (she's gutted as you can imagine) and Anthea got the week off short notice but needed to use her holidays up for work reasons (career change - Finally got in the Police depite passing everything and being due to start 2 years ago). Got a nice hotel and upgraded to all inclusive and brought my bike with me. Tired last night so didn't build the bike until this morning. Not planning mega miles as its a family holiday but found a good loop of 29 miles so will do that most mornings and have planned to 3-4 hour ride mid week so should clock around 200 mile bike week and doing some running in the evening too. I have my wetsuit but not too worried about swimming to be honest. It rained this morning for the first 15 mile of the ride but then cleared up but even in the rain I still had shorts and short sleeve top on and was warm. Oh well that's all for now, hope you all enjoy the UK weather :-)

Lance Armstrong or Sags - greatest sporting bluff?

Back in 2001 on the first mountain stage of the tour Lance Armstrong sat in all day playing a great poker game, he had the Telecom team convinced he was in trouble all day and Telecom tried to capitalise on this and put the whole team on the front to try and break him. After a couple of kilometers up the climb Lance stared Ulrich in the face for 2-3 seconds and then attacked, destroyed the field and went on to win the tour. Sags has sat there and told us all of his injuries, lack of training and talked of retirement all winter, he then goes out and does a 3k TT on the running track in 10:30. For those who haven't bothered to work it out or just not clicked as it took me a couple of days before I realised is that 10:30 for 3k is at the same speed an 18 min 5k! That's fast for a man who has "done nothing, not been training etc" in fact that's just fast full stop! So who has the greatest poker face? Lance or Sags? On a serious note, its good to see Sags getting back into it and I think the talk of retirement is rubbish as I know for a fact he's just bought some new trainers! Welcome back Sags.

On a change of subject but sticking with trainers I have just received my new ones, I like to be different and I don't like many of the colours of the UK models so I contacted my inside man (in this case inside lady) and got some Pro Grid Ride 2 in a nice red, only available normally in France and Germany. I have also been privileged enough to get some Fastwitch 4 which came today as well despite the fact they don't go on sale until the first week of February :-)

Life on the turbo

Well its the 7th Jan 2010. I have ridden on the road on the 1st Jan and since then I have been on the turbo 6 times!! Already sick of it, I am struggling to get turbo motivated this year, don't know how I did it last winter, must of been the fact it was vital for the early Ironman in South Africa. Still today's session was interrupted by the post man (well parcel force actually) who were not due until tomorrow. I wasn't bothered though as it was my disc arriving. Its made by Pro and retails at about £900 but mine is second hand, it has a dura-ace axle fitted, ultegra 10 speed cassette and conti tyre + the wheel bag and all for just £350 :-) Already had it fitted for a photo session, stickers have been removed as I will be putting custom stickers on it (most likely to be name and sponsors web address) just deciding what font and colour to have them done in.

The New Year Has Started

So that's it, a new year has started. Happy new year to those that have been and still do follow my blog. I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. I worked most of Christmas but was off for the end of the year. So what's been happening? Not too much to be honest. I have been doing little bits of training here and there but nothing too consistent yet. I have been doing most of the cycling (which isn't much) on the turbo after the big freeze took over in Bridlington and you couldn't even walk safely let alone get your bike on the road. I finally got out on the road on New Years day for a nice ride of 1 hour 40. At the 10 mile point it started to snow heavily but I carried on and after a couple of miles it eased off only to start again on the main climb of the route. I got back just before my feet started to freeze so it wasn't too bad. I ran a 10 mile loop on the 30th Dec at a steady and comfortable pace and got round in 64 mins so quite pleased with that. Today I am in work so I brought the turbo in and set up in the gym next to the treadmill and did a brick, 10 mins run at 10k race pace then 20 min bike at Olympic distance pace repeated the set 3 times. Quite tired at the end but a good work out.

I didn't get any triathlon kit at Christmas this year, I opted to save the money towards a disc for the 2010 season, I looked into buying new but have gone for a used one as I don't know how much I will use it yet but going on past experience I will probably have it up for sale by mid season hence not spending loads on a new one. I also am now on the look out for a second hand tri spoke for the front. With the cosmic carbons I already have I will have plenty of set up options if I pick up a tri spoke as well. I have advertised my TT bike for sale as I may be getting a new race bike but at the moment its hard to say as the one I might be getting is rather difficult to get hold of. I hope to know more in the next 2-4 weeks what the likely hood is of me getting the new one. I have been well behaved over the Christmas/new year period and haven't over indulged so at the moment I seem to be fluctuating between 73 and 74 kgs but if I could only stop eating chocolate and danish pastries I might be able to get down to 72 kgs for the race season.

I have entered Clumber Park Duathlon and Antwerp 70.3 so far and also the Fleet Half Marathon and London Marathon. I will be applying for a slot at either the World or European Long course races for team GB but I don't know if I will qualify so time will tell on that front. I haven't worked out yet what smaller events I will do as warm up/training races but will start to look into it soon. I think that's all for now? so the only other thing is I changed the colour scheme on the blog just to freshen things up.

Daz

I don't usually vent my frustration on here

I've just been watching the news and I feel that so many people need a reality check. All the people who were stuck on the trains in the euro tunnel being interviewed on the news crying and sobbing about being stuck on the train with no drinks or food and dirty toilets. Then they had the bare faced cheek to stand there and say that the so called ordeal has ruined Christmas. How dare they when on the same news programme there was the story of another British soldier who has been killed on duty in Afghanistan. Come on people its time for a reality check! get a grip on reality you sad pathetic losers.
Whilst I'm in the festive mood, remember if you get chance to buy Rage against the machine even if you don't like it and prevent "the crap factor" from being number 1 this weekend. The song is rubbish anyway but the point is do you want to be dictated to as to what your Christmas number 1 will be or would you like to choose for yourself.

2010 - The big plan - Ambitious? - Maybe

Ok, its time to unveil the game plan for 2010. I have now put some things in place and decided what the season goals will be. I am aiming high and hope I can bring the form I had at the end of the 2009 season through into next year and try to improve on it. So what's on the cards? I have ambitions to qualify for 3 World Championships!

Part 1 of the plan - I have entered the Clumber Park Duathlon which is the national champs and also a World Champs qualifier. I am hoping to qualify for an age group slot for team GB and race the World Champs in Edinburgh in September.

Part 2 of the plan - I will submit some of my previous results from 08 and 09 to hopefully be selected for the World Long Course Champs for the GB age group team which are being held in Germany at the end of July.

Part 3 of the plan - I have entered Ironman 70.3 Antwerp with a goal of qualifying for Clearwater age group World Champs held in November in Florida.

So there you have it, my extremely ambitious plan for 2010. Is it achievable? I guess time will tell! I am also doing the London Marathon in April and hope to finally get it right. I have not had much luck at London over the last few years so fingers crossed it might go well for a change. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? probably but if you don't aim high what's the point in trying.