My Horrible Start Continues

So much for wanting to get 750km on the trainer by April 1st. That's not gonna happen I'm afraid. On top of it being boring which makes it difficult to motivate myself to do, we had a house guest for the last 2 weeks who took over my basement where the bike is. I've also been extremely busy at work, and by the time I get home all I can think about is crashing on the couch. So it look like my first goal of 2010is a fail.

I did get my first road ride in this past weekend though. The weather was very nice so I decided to go for a short and easy paced 20k just to get the feel of the bike again... and avoid a heart attack from overdoing it first time out. I actually thought I had gotten off to an even earlier start than last year, until I discovered after I looked up my stats from '09 that my first ride of the season was February 28th. Other than the exact date, I remember that ride vividly. It was also 20k and I was so cold when I got home that it took me a good hour to thaw out. This year was much better in that regard. At least 3 degrees warmer and no bone shattering chill on my return.

Anyway, for now I've decided to set an early goal of at least matching my mileage from '09 in 2010, which was 2111km. Actually, I've rounded it up to an even 2200km for now. Hopefully, things work out better than my trainer program.

A Horrible Start

What can I say? I'm off to a horrible start to my 2010 season. Being January, the cycling around Toronto, at least for me, is pretty much non-existent but I had hoped to put in some good mileage on the trainer in the basement. So far though, for the month of January, I've managed only a meager 53 km. Between the new job and other distractions, I'm not finding myself in the saddle very often. And boy do I need to be there. I helped my daughter tack up her horse at her riding lesson just the other day, and by the time I was finished wrestling with the beast's hooves, I was totally winded. Worse still, I'm a good 7-8 pounds heavier than my best mid-season weight last year.

So I really need to start getting serious. To do that, I've decided to set a distance goal for trainer. I've set a mark of 750km by April 1, a very achieveable goal I think, afterall, I'm not one for setting unrealistic goals. It's about 10 weeks to the beginning of April and I figure if I can average 75km a week, I'll be right there. For me that's about 3-4 rides a week as I usually do 20 or 25 km on the trainer before boredom overwhelms me. Technically, I've got 10 weeks to do 700, since I'm 50 km in already, but a little headstart never hurt anybody.

2010

Happy New Year everyone! Like 2009, I've decided to keep a blog journal of my year in cycling once again for 2010. I suspect it will get off to a fairly slow start though. Toronto is in the grip of winter for the next few months at least, so I don't expect to get much if any road mileage in for a little while. Instead, I'm confined to my trainer in the basement and hope to get some much needed kilometers in on that until the spring. I decided I had better start with the trainer sooner rather than later as it seems I've put back on a little weight over the Christmas season. Whereas I was about 172lbs at the end of my 2009 season, I weighed in on New Years Day back at the 180lb mark. My first goal is to try to drop some of that again.

I haven't set a goal for mileage on the trainer. I'm just going to ride as much as I can to stay in shape and hopefully trim some of that excess weight. I also haven't set a goal for my road mileage for the 2010 season as its a bit early for me to think about that. I have to see how much time my new job might allow me for cycling and so on. I figure I have until April to set that goal so stay tuned. You can also follow my progress on the trainer and on the road with my little meters over on the right there.

That's all for now. Here's wishing everyone a safe and crash-free 2010 cycling season. As a fellow blogger puts it, "Keep the rubber side down".