Cycle Cycle Cycle!

Cyclocross hey....

Went for a little adventure on Saturday on the Ridley Supercross, first good cycle in awhile have lost all motivation for cycling at the mo. Maybe it is because of the rubbish weather or just feeling the January blues, who knows but i have been very slack!!

Off i pottered up over Canford Heath and on to Wimbourne! Canford Heath was a little damp in places and made for some good fun riding, then hit the old train track from Broadstone to Wimbourne which is a nice flat gravel track which you can smash easily.

When i arrived in Wimbourne first thing was to check the River Stour for fishing Sunday ( the main reason for the cycle really!!! ) it was high and very very fast, not good for fishing! Foolishly i did fish and it was a disastor but we wont talk about that!!! So i checked out a few spot cycled across some very wet fields, most of which looked like lakes themselves!

Then off i went round the back lanes of Wimbourne/Cowgrove area, which are nice due to very little traffic. Passed a lot of roadies out on training rides, who seeming to be in a lot better shape than myself! A few green lanes and more off roading was to follow, getting covered in a variation of mud and possibly cow muc, didn't really want to check just kept telling myself it was mud! After about a couple hours of riding i was as good as baked, so headed home (to mummys for a cup of tea and biscuits first) taking the same route i used on the way out!

It was a good cycle, and did bring back some motivation to get out more on the cross bike. Just need some lighter longer days and better weather!

Would also like to say a well done to Jough our Northern Rep who raced the Masters Cyclocross World Champs this weekend finished 33rd after a couple of crashes in the main event (and a pair of snapped forks on Friday!) still a great effort.

It is what it is.

So here we are, the earliest part of the year and so far so good, keeping to at least 10hrs on a bike a week for a month and raising that by 2 hrs a month until May where my main race of the year is - Charge Bikes Set 2 Rise, a 12 hr endurance event.

So far my training consists of 2 X 1.5 hrs on a trainer + 1 X 1 hr with a 5-6 hr ride at the weekend (+ 1 hr a day commute, but that doesn't really count!).
As the weather changes and days get longer, I'm looking forward to spending more time looking at the forest, trails or rolling hills as opposed to staring at a sweaty reflection in my conservatory.

Unfortunately Im missing this weekends session as Im of to Paris with my better half, but fear not I hear the chant of The Brass Monkeys and look forward to the delights they will bring at the end of Jan... See you then
Mr. Hoppe

First Triathlon Training Swim!

Well that was fun!!!!
I haven't been swimming since i was at school (now ten years ago) so i was a little rusty to say the least!

But anyway the alarm went off the wrong side of 6.30am this morning so up i rolled out of bed rather dazed and confused, time to get ready for the swim. Had a couple of banana's, played with the dog and off i went into a dark very wet cold morning which in it's self was a shock to the system that early. Arriving at the pool for just before 7am ( James didn't show, some lame story about having my old number! ), so on with the shorts and goggles and into the blue i fell!

The water was nice and warm which helped, and off i went length after length. Having not swam for alooonnng time it was not easy to start with, but i powered on swimming at a gentle pace to get into it and took it fairly easy for the whole swim. Not wanting to push myself on the first outing!
About half an hour of swimming was enough for me, so about 15-20 lengths later, i knew i had alot of work to do to be competitive in the Triathlon! After getting myself sorted off i pedaled off to work again into the cold dark wet morning!

So the next swim is Friday morning, again very very early but it has to be done.

New goggs.

So. Just to catch up on where I'm at. I play hockey, I cycle (sometimes), try to play Rugby League and this year will be my first foray into triathlon. The weekends hockey was good for me. Scored 3 goals, won 5-2 against Trojans away in Southampton, a team who beat us earlier in the season. Did something funny to my knee though (I have constant knee issues for some reason) so I'll be skipping training tonight in favour of watching city beat united in the Carling Cup accompanied by a massive bowl of pasta and maybe a cheeky glass of vino. When I have something interesting and thought provoking to say I'll see if I can convey it reasonably elloquently, if not, I'll just chat shit.

Today, we had our first ever bit of triathlon kit turn up at the office, exciting! Ordered a set of these goggles yesterday (Speedo speed sockets) from Wiggle.co.uk for training in the pool and they were here the very next day. Logan's up for testing them out tommorow morning before work! I reckon that's a bit keen personally but tempted to get up early just cos they look so rad and I want to show them off. I'll let you know if they actually work or not....



check out the speed sockets on wiggle here

Intro

Right then. Initially this was just supposed to be a fun thing to do to tell anyone who'd listen about mine and Logans experience of training for the London triathlon. Instead... we've expanded it a little bit to a small select group of friends involved in various different sports who thought it'd be a good way of documenting what we get up to.

It just so happens that Logan, James and myself all work at the same place (Cycling Sports Group UK) come a Monday morning there's always the conversation of how we got on at the weekend, whether it be how many goals I scored in the hockey or where James finished in the latest Gorrick MTB race. Theres an inevitably high level of competition amongst staff members with bragging rights for the week dependant on how well any of us did in our respective sports.