Monthly Cycling Summary (December 2008)

All monthly cycling summaries may be viewed by clicking here.

2008 Cycling Summary (as at Nov)

Some cycling in December, at least some base for the New Year.
 

Week 93 (22nd – 28th December 2008)

Current goals may be viewed here.

All climbing training diary entries may be viewed here.

Haven’t posted for a few weeks as have had a lot on (and consequently only sporadic training). Managed two wall sessions and two MTBs in the Xmas week, which can’t be bad. Still feeling rather overweight though .
 

Training Diary
Day	Commentary	Stats
Monday	3 hours bouldering at The Castle. Ankle was a bit crunchy, but took some falls with little ill-effect. The pads of my fingers took a bit more punishment as I’m no longer accustomed to yarding between big holds a long way from each other . Problems up to V3, but didn’t really keep count.	n/k
Tuesday	15km gentle MTB around Swinley Forest – nice to be out and about, even if it was rather cold!
Wednesday	Rest ankle.
Thursday	Cook / eat turkey.
Friday	Rest ankle.
Saturday	20 km MTB ride round Swinley Forest, again mostly sticking to the main paths. Lovely day, if somewhat cold. No ankle problems .
Sunday	3 hours bouldering at Craggy Island Sutton. Was impressed by the venue. Friendly staff and climbers; clean holds and mats; nice, well-thought-out problems; and enough to have a proper work-out. Concentrated more on volume than difficulty as a bit tired from MTBing the day before. Will go back again. A few ankle grumbles, but nothing too bad. Problems up to Font 6a, but again did not keep count	n/k

 
Will aim to do some outdoor climbing, and maybe some more MTBing, during the next week.
 

Training Summary
Cycling		Other Cardio		Wall Sessions (2)
Road:	0 km	Running:	0 km	V3:	n/k
MTB:	35 km			V4:	0
Total:	35 km			V5:	0

 
Progress against Short-term Goals

	No outdoor routes this week.
	5km short of my 40 km minimum, but all of that was MTBing and it was Xmas week.
	No running.
	No fingerboard sessions, but did get to the wall twice.
	No outdoor bouldering.

 
Progress against Medium-term Goals

	None.

 

Week 92 (15th – 21st December 2008)

Place-holder to be updated when I have time.
 

Week 91 (8th – 14th December 2008)

Place-holder to be updated when I have time.
 

Week 90 (1st – 7th December 2008)

Current goals may be viewed here.

All climbing training diary entries may be viewed here.

Three wall-sessions, two road cycles and one MTB ride made this my best week training in forever. Aside from a few ankle twinges at the wall, everything went pretty well. I am however a bit down about how bad my climbing has become. I’m also scared of doing anything bar jug hauling when more than 2m off the mat – a question of time and confidence I guess.
 

Training Diary
Day	Commentary	Stats
Monday	30 km road cycle, average “speed” a snail-like 19.3 kmph on light cyclo-cross tyres; I guess all the time off has really taken it’s toll on my fitness . On a more positive note, this is the furthest I have cycled since deciding to take my ankle injury seriously and (touch wood) no adverse effects as yet. 3 hours bouldering at The Arch. Still wary about pushing hard on ,my right ankle and warier of falling, so not exactly pushing things too much and also tired from cycling! Still a reasonable session all in all and the ankle was in reasonable shape at the end. Problems up to V4.	V3 x 4 V4 x 2 V5 x 0
Tuesday	Rest ankle.
Wednesday	25 km road cycle, average “speed” a very slightly improved 22.6 kmph on light cyclo-cross tyres. With the thermometer reading 0°C, I made the schoolboy error of wearing a thicker top layer than I should have and hence over-heated horribly. Accordingly couldn’t manage a fifth lap. The good news is that the ankles was 100% fine .
Thursday	Rest ankle.
Friday	2 hours bouldering at The Arch. Was pushing and swivelling on my right ankle and taking falls from 1-2m for the first time in ages, but still really scared of exacerbating the injury. In point of fact, it started to flare-up a bit, so I (sensibly for once) stopped climbing. Glad I did as it’s not too bad now. Problems up to V4 (flashed, but sadly soft-touch).	V3 x 3 V4 x 1 V5 x 0
Saturday	2.5 hours bouldering at The Arch. Tired after the previous day’s session. Ankle a bit grumbly as well. Problems up to V3.	V3 x 4 V4 x 0 V5 x 0
Sunday	20 km MTB ride round Swinley Forest, mostly sticking to the mail paths as the single-track consisted mostly of rutted, then frozen mud. Lovely day nevertheless. No ankle problems either . However it did take forever to clean the mud off of the bikes.

 
The simple aim is to sustain this level of training into the next week.
 

Training Summary
Cycling		Other Cardio		Wall Sessions (3)
Road:	55 km	Running:	0 km	V3:	11
MTB:	20 km			V4:	3
Total:	75 km			V5:	0

 
Progress against Short-term Goals

	No outdoor routes this week.
	Exceeded my 40 km minimum in the first three days of the week and went on to clock up 75km in total; importantly will no ill-effects.
	No running.
	No fingerboard sessions, but did get to the wall three times.
	No outdoor bouldering.

 
Progress against Medium-term Goals

	None.

 

My bike

I have lots of posts here referring to cycling and so I thought that I would post a photo of my bike.

Focus Lost Lagoon 2007

It is a Focus Lost Lagoon Hybrid, which I initially bought for commuting with the idea that I might do some light off-roading as well. It came with 700c rims, narrow cyclo-cross tyres and a rather less beefy fork; the claim being that it would “handle any terrain” (the original spec was something like 2009’s version). After having little control at MTB centres (and bursting two tyres), I decided that maybe I needed to do something about this. It now has a Rock Shox Reba SL Air Pop-Loc 29er fork. I still use the cyclo-cross tyres it came with for road cycling, but in the image it has rather more serious Maxxis Ignitors. It wasn’t on the stand purely for photographic purposes, but as I was getting it ready (and changing the tyres) for some planned MTBing tomorrow.
 
Addendum 1

And just for contrast, here it is, rather less clean, after said MTBing: -

Rather muddier bikes

 
Addendum 2

Given the number of people who have posted full specifications of their bikes on the LinkedIn.com Awesome Mountain Biking group, I thought that I had better do so too: -

Fork	Rock Shox Reba SL Dual Air with Pushloc (upgraded from original spec.)
Shifting System/Rear Derailleur	Shimano Deore LX
Shift Lever	Shimano Deore Rapid Fire
Chainset	Shimano Deore
Bottom Bracket	Shimano Splined
Gear Ratio	Front: 44/32/22, Rear: 11-32
Handlebar	Concept SL Lowriser
Stem	Concept SL
Saddle	Selle Italia X2
Seat Post	Concept SL, 2-bolts
Brakes	Magura Julie hydraulic, disc brake
Front Hub	Shimano Deore, quick release
Rear Hub	Shimano Deore, quick release
Rims	Rodi Airliner-I disc
Pedals	Shimano M520 clipless (upgraded from original spec.)

 
 

Monthly Cycling Summary (November 2008)

All monthly cycling summaries may be viewed by clicking here.

2008 Cycling Summary (as at Nov)

November cycling was (yet again) curtailed by injury.
 

Week 89 (24th – 30th November 2008)

Current goals may be viewed here.

All climbing training diary entries may be viewed here.

After a reasonably positive report last week, did nothing whatsoever this week for a number of reasons. The only positive thing about this is that my ankle seems to be grateful for the rest.
 

Training Diary
Day	Commentary	Stats
Monday	Rest ankle.
Tuesday	Rest ankle.
Wednesday	Rest ankle.
Thursday	Rest ankle.
Friday	Rest ankle.
Saturday	7 km walk, just a couple of ankle twinges.
Sunday	Rest ankle.

 
As I said the main positive was some more rest for the ankle, which is doing pretty well now. Will see how good it is by trying some more cycling / climbing next week.
 

Training Summary
Cycling		Other Cardio		Wall Sessions (0)
Road:	0 km	Running:	0 km	V3:	0
MTB:	0 km			V4:	0
Total:	0 km			V5:	0

 
Progress against Short-term Goals

	No outdoor routes this week.
	No cycling.
	No running.
	No fingerboard sessions.
	No outdoor bouldering.

 
Progress against Medium-term Goals

	None.

 

Week 88 (17th – 23rd November 2008)

Current goals may be viewed here.

All climbing training diary entries may be viewed here.

Did some indoor climbing for the first time in weeks. No problems at all with routes and only minimal ones with bouldering. Also did a longer (for me) cycle with no real repercussions. Overall a reasonably positive week.
 

Training Diary
Day	Commentary	Stats
Monday	Rest ankle.
Tuesday	My right ankle was feeling a lot better for the full lay-off and so I thought that it was worth trying some climbing. The idea of falling or jumping off of boulder problems was not however terribly appealing and so I spent 3 hours at The Westway top roping and easy leading. A couple of twinges, but no sharp pain and no crunching sensation in my ankle, so a positive result. My fingers are stronger from all the fingerboard sessions and I can hang most things, even the chalk-covered horrors I was climbing on. However, I seem to have forgotten how to move between holds (plus maybe being rather conservative with my ankle) and need to get this back. Top-roped up to F6a (flashed) and led up to F5+ (flashed).
Wednesday	Ankle slightly sore after climbing and then more so after a 6.5 km walk. Need to make sure that I don’t rush back into things too quickly I guess.
Thursday	Rest ankle.
Friday	2 hours bouldering at The Arch. First bouldering session since I decided to give the ankle a total rest. No pain or crunching in the joint, but it did start swelling up after a while, so called it a day early. Still paranoid about falling . I found it really easy to hold small holds (a result of the fingerboard sessions I guess), but harder to move between them (both not fully trusting the ankle and a lack of general climbing conditioning).	V3 x 2 V4 x 0 V5 x 0
Saturday	24 km MTB (trail) cycle round Richmond Park – have lost quite a bit of fitness, but it wasn’t too bad. Ankle seemed to survive with just a bit of grumbling.
Sunday	Rest ankle.

 
More of the same next week, a continued gentle reintroduction to my normal routine and see how the ankle copes with it. So far, so good!
 

Training Summary
Cycling		Other Cardio		Wall Sessions (1 bouldering, 1 routes)
Road:	0 km	Running:	0 km	V3:	2
MTB:	24 km			V4:	0
Total:	24 km			V5:	0

 
Progress against Short-term Goals

	No outdoor routes this week.
	Didn’t hit the 40 km per week goal, but was nevertheless nice to do 24 km in one outing with no adverse impact on the ankle..
	Although I am somewhat warily climbing and cycling, running still seems some way off.
	No fingerboard sessions, but got to the wall twice: once routes, once bouldering, again without too bad results anklewise.
	No outdoor bouldering this week.

 
Progress against Medium-term Goals

	Parked for the present due to the ankle.

Week 87 (10th – 16th Nov 2008)

Current goals may be viewed here.

All climbing training diary entries may be viewed here.

My third week of ankle rest. It has improved further – I have even been skipping down escallators on the Tube. I have tweaked it a few times, but none of these have led to a major flare-up, so maybe it is finally getting better. Given this, I have shelved the medical option for the present. Dropped the fingerboard sessions because I was rather occupied dealing with some other stuff, will pick these back up next week. Had an exploratory cycle as well, which seemed to go OK. For the first time in a while I begin to feel somewhat optimistic about my injury getting better.
 

Training Diary
Day	Commentary	Stats
Monday	Rest ankle.
Tuesday	Rest ankle.
Wednesday	Rest ankle.
Thursday	Rest ankle.
Friday	Exploratory 16km road cycle, average speed a rather slow 23.2 kmph on light cyclocross tyres, but then I was mostly seeing how the ankle held up. It was OK when cycling with no twinges at all. It’s a bit sore now, but that is only to be expected I guess.
Saturday	Ankle was a bit sore from cycling, but managed a 9 km walk with only a couple of twinges.
Sunday	Rest ankle. No apparent adverse effects from the previous two days, which is good.

 
Well ticked the box of doing some mild cycling, will try to get back to my minimum of 40 km per week next week. Also want to work some climbing back into the mix.
 

Training Summary
Cycling		Other Cardio		Wall Sessions (0)
Road:	16 km	Running:	0 km	V3:	0
MTB:	0 km			V4:	0
Total:	16 km			V5:	0

 
Progress against Short-term Goals

	No outdoor routes this week.
	No cycling due to ankle.
	No running due to ankle.
	Well I did at least two fingerboard sessions for the previous five weeks, so I probably needed a rest anyway. I don’t feel too bad about this.
	No outdoor bouldering this week.

 
Progress against Medium-term Goals

	Parked for the present due to the ankle.