Cycling heroin

Hey all, hope you had a good week (even though my premonitions of good weather where rather false!)

Well this week I have mostly being doing that which I have come to love with a passion, cycling.  I can’t remember ever enjoying something as much as I do cycling.  It is bit by bit taking over lots of spare time and has helped me kick my online gaming addiction.  I have also been following Le Tour De France it has been cracking this year and an awesome performance by Cadel Evans especially his time trial on Saturday.  I am also reading a lot again around different subjects which I am also really enjoying!

Went for a long ride on Thursday evening with Ted and a whole bunch of people from Evans out towards Glossop up some long hills and down some fast decents…my speedo reckons I was doing 62mph down one but I am not so sure, it was certainly exciting bordering on scary.  My long time friend the puncture visited again whilst we where cycling down some country lanes in the dark at about 22:30 so I have bought some http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/all-condition-armadillo-tyre-ec001821 i already have these on my commuting bike and haven’t had any problems with punctures for a while (touches wood frantically) so I have bought a rear one for my racing bike!  It probably doesn’t help being so heavy also.  So I arrived back in town at about 23:00 on the A6 from Stockport after my other riding custom getting rained on.  The Apollo was kicking out and I nearly crashed into a few people same in Gay Village a bit surreal cycling through a bunch of pissed up people.

So I have signed up for the Manchester 100mile in September http://www.bike-events.com/Ride.aspx?id=286 and am also planning a route to cycle from Manchester to Hull which is approximately 91miles in total Manchester to Hull.  You have to click on the walking icon also as much as I would love to cycle all the way down the M62 don’t think that will be the route I’m taking lol!!

So some thoughts this week on the fat loss mission.  I seem to be doing ok.  There are certainly a lot of physical indicators to suggest I’m at least changing shape in that my waist is smaller and my t-shirts are longer.  I’ve just been looking at some of the older pics of me on Facebook and I can definitely see an improvement.  However the numerical weight isn’t coming off as fast as I’d like and that is a little disheartening.  Also taking a bit of a battering to the confidence knowing I’m far to heavy for climbing hills in any sort of decent speed and knowing it’s probably the weight that’s causing me to puncture a lot.  I’m sure this will iron out and have to keep telling myself to keep up the hard work and motivation after all for all the cycling in the world its not that I am doing it for it’s so I can see my little girl grow up.

So totals for this week;

Cycling Commuting;  23.75km 

‘Leisure’ Cycling;       51.50km

2 x Gym Session;        30 minutes cardio (Crosstraining and rowing)

(Per session)                Various weights

                                    15minutes stretching

I know it’s a long one today cheers for putting up with me if you have read it all!!   

Have a good one this week and stay safe!

The Body Fat

Heya's

So this week was pretty mundane as apose to last weeks high of the Blackpool trip.  It taken me a few days to recover and not in the ways i thought.  Firstly people where saying that it would be my arse that was going be in pain, it wasnt it was my lower back and my arms.  A massage from the expert who is Karen Aitken from Relaxing Retreats http://www.traffordleisure.co.uk/centres/stretford/therapies/ sorted my neck and back out and a good gym session and swim sorted out the rest.

Went out this morning for a cycle doing some of the same route of the Manchester to Blackpool Ted has promised me a good pedal on Thursday evening with some hills so that should be very interesting!!  Decided to start the swimming again its not so great on the eczema but i have to say its good for my dodgy knee.  I will be going to see a physio and good friend of mine Mr Marek Holowenko http://www.mhcpt.co.uk/ for a session tomorrow to try and find out what is wrong with my knee.  Its not that i cant exercise its just painful when i kneel on it and a little sore after i finish cycling.  See what happens.

So had my body fat reading taken this week and was pleasantly surprised it was 20% which is borderline healthy/overweight  the last time i took the test it was 35% so i am chuffed.  Need to work on that looking to get down to 10%ish.  More swimming and gym me thinks.

So the totals this week;

Exercise

Commuting;  34.13km
Leisure;  45km
Gym Session;  Crosstrainer various weights
Swimming;  24 lengths front crawl

Have an uber week and hoping that the weather picks up for us all!!

Manchester to Blackpool!

Hi all,

Well its Monday and I’m a day late for the blog but last night I didn’t feel like doing it after riding to Blackpool lol.  So here is the story!

Mark O’Reilly, Lee Bradley and I started out at 08:30 from Old Trafford in really nice weather not to hot and a nice breeze.  The route took us through Trafford Park and past the Trafford Centre and up towards Leigh.  The route was fairly flat but there where some nice climbs and a couple of really fast decents along the way!  After about an hour and a half just past Bolton I got a puncture and was about 20minutes changing it with the help of Mark (Lee being deaf (he’s not) had carried on up the road only to realise we where missing about a mile and a half later!!)  So puncture fixed we headed up past the first check point and down through so random places I cannot remember the names of :-S.  We came across an amazing rain cloud around about 3hours in that dumped about an ocean and a half’s worth of water on us it was fun to ride in and to see the more sane riders who had pulled in to seek shelter!!  Lee decided after ten minutes of the downpour to put his rain jacket on even though by that point we may as well have been naked as we were all soaked to the bone!  The first stop of the day saw me putting some air in my tyre as it was a little low from the puncture and some much need drinks and a bit of food.  We set off again and saw many many people all raising money for great causes and some in outfits.  The Cavewomen, lady boys where my favourite costumes!  There where a few crashes along the way one women had crashed and wasn’t wearing a helmet she was out cold on the road.  We stopped but the marshals where already with her and the ambulance on the way so we went on.  About 3 miles from the end the pain really started to kick in my back and arms where in bits and it was only the thought of you guys support and the comradery of Lee and Mark that got us through the end of the cycle!!

If you would still like to contribute to the charity you can through http://www.justgiving.com/James-Crossland

Again thanks for all your support, thanks for the texts on the day wishing us luck and thanks again for the sponsorship it's been amazing!

Impassioned Plea…

So you may have seen me trying to get sponsors for the Charity Bike Ride next week.  A lot of people at my work have sponsored me which is great and a fair few of my friends to but a lot of the 396 friends on Facebook haven’t still.  I know its your choice and times are hard but it would help me a lot if you could donate even 50p which would mean that snack from the vending machine or not much else it’s not a lot but if all 396 people donated that much it would be £198 which would be awesome.

http://www.justgiving.com/James-Crossland) 

So on to more serious business this week I had my first weigh in.  I’ve been holding off on this as I know I am losing weight from my clothes and from visual references i.e I can start to see my neck again and I can actually bend over and tie my shoes.  Not massive things but things I took for granted before and which add a little motivation…so drum role please…1/2 a stone lost!!  So that great news its nice and slow so I’m happy with it as I expected there to be a bit of swapping fat for muscle etc but I am pleased.  I will be doing a body fat percentage test this week on Friday and will be watching that closely.  I expect it will be near to 30% if I’m being realistic which still situates me in the obese class but going forward I can see this regime is working and I’m loving the cycling which is probably the biggest reason for the progress.

Exercise

Cycling (Commuting);            61.85km

Wattbike Session                      10km

Gym Sessions                          x 2 -  Crosstraining for 10minutes and various weights.

So have a good week guys and expect a substantial blog next week (hopefully with some video) regarding the charity bike ride!!