Oops! Catch up

Sorry for the delay in posting - got a bit busy, fell behind, and so on. I have been good, though.

First things first - I have decided to stop running for the moment, until I get the weight down to a certain target and build up core strength. It's not a six/twelve month thing, the weight goal's only 4 kilo or so away (and have already lost 3 since mid December), and I'm attacking it with being a bit more sensible about food, doing two 40 to 45 minutes (will get longer) interval sessions on the bike and indoor trainer in addition to the Saturday 100k+ ride, plus a weights session three times a week which includes a good abs and back workout (which I hate, but eh, gotta do it). Plus work's a bit more physically active at the moment, which helps.

The reason for the little delay is I felt I was kind of getting nowhere, with treatment (physio and massage) doing little but keeping me rolling along semi-okay, and that there fundamental issues there that needed to be addressed - i.e. weight and core strength. I'm only two weeks into the weights regime but it does seem to have helped - tone is improved, at any rate.

In terms of work done, I've kind of been alternating weeks of 210k+ (generally doubling up with 100k on Sat and Mon when I have an RDO, including a ride to Nudgee and back) with weeks of 110k+. The last couple of weeks has seen the introduction of interval sessions on the indoor trainer, which are basically a 5 minute warm up, then a minute at 90 cadence, a minute easy, a minute at 100 cadence, a minute easy, and then a minute at 110 cadence with a another easy minutes, before repeating the process at a higher level for the work periods. I have a rough session mapped out which goes level 2, 3, 4, then 3 and 2 on the wind down for a 45 minute session. I'm interested to try doubling up on that, might give that a go next week.

It's made a surprising difference on the road with the Saturday group - I'm actually able to keep up with a couple of guys I'd been battling to stay with, so fitness is coming along quite nicely (plus a little weight loss helping too, no doubt). I'm a firm believer interval sessions are great for weight management too, so they should help.

So far, so good.