9 Feb: Week 1 wrapup

It's the end of the first proper week of training. In addition to the Utrecht ride last weekend I've been to the gym three times, which is so out of character it looks just like bad writing.

I'm doing a mix of strength and cycling workouts. At the cycling workouts everyone else is in Lycra with clip in shoes while I'm there with baggy shorts and toeclips. It's friendlier than it sounds, but there's not a lot of talking to each other; everyone is on a bike panting and sweating while a placid instructor wanders around giving sage advice about FTP ... which is sadly nearly inaudible because the PA sound quality is poor.

I thought I was more than keeping pace but then found my results are near the bottom of the class, which was an unexpected and irks me more than I expected. I'm consoling myself that I'm training for all-day endurance rides while these classes are for shorter bursts. Also, I'm getting some knee aches so I probably shouldn't push much harder, a knee injury at this point might mean everything gets cancelled... so I will have to be philosophical about these results.

Strength training is a mix of yoga and weights. Instead of just lying on your back raising your feet off the floor, you do that with kettlebell lifts. Pelvic raises, with weights. It's done in pairs, where one person does a set number of reps and then you switch: which adds extra pressure to do those reps first so the other person doesn't suffer too long! Not sure I'm keeping up so well here but it's only causing muscle aches so I should push on.

On a completely unrelated topic, rice is suddenly much tastier! I can't get enough, but it's only rice so it’s all OK. If I had started getting caviar cravings it would be a problem…