The past few weeks I’ve been meandering along on my trusty touring steed – my steel Tour de Fer, I decided that if I was to be taken seriously as a roadie I needed to start training on a road bike. As such I have dusted off my First road bike, a Bianchi Via Nirone 7. I bought this in 2004 when I first started to cycle as a young lad, it came with Campag gear but was generally a low spec. Since that time the bike has been completely re-built, with hand built Mavic Open Pro wheels and Shimano Ultegra groupset. This makes for a nice spec bike – but I realised it is nearly 6 years since I have ridden it. So it needed a good service and some TLC, but a bit of elbow grease later and I had a fast bike to train on.
I went out on it last week and it felt so nice. It was stiffer and smooth to change gears and the saddle is loads comfier as it is already broken in. I’m still having weekly PT sessions with Zoe. We are currently working on the plan for the next few months. I was meant to be doing an Audax in June, but I very much doubt that this will be going ahead – much like my half marathon that has just been cancelled. Plan for that is 1) drive to Ashbourne 2) Carl will run to Parsley Hay along the Tissington Trail 3) Zoe will follow on a bicycle to support.
I had a nice moment the other day, I got my hiking bag out of the loft, for the first time this year as I decided to walk to do the shopping. Without thinking I clipped the waist strap around and it was set from the last time I wore it – massive gap! WAHOO!! Things like this keep happening, there is no feeling quite like seeing someone that you haven’t seen for a long time and they say ‘you’ve lost some weight’. Simple things like that really move me up the mood elevator.
Another thing I’ve discovered as part of this journey is my love for cooking. I used to cook years ago but stopped 10 years ago in a bout of depression and have not cooked since. The diet lifestyle that I have been following is forcing me to eat freshly home cooked food. Now, I am not going to pretend I’ve all of a sudden been transformed into Sat Bains – but I have been helping a lot. Linda is keeping me fuelled with the right food, but several times a week I am putting a shift in the kitchen. Tonight I made a 600Kcal Sloppy Joes meal – it tasted as good as it looked, Linda liked it too – even with the secret addition of Red Chillies 😉
Bipolar Ironman 