The reluctant cyclist's training guide - Richard

Ramblings of a reluctant cyclist - Training

  

So I here you ask, what’s the training like?    Is it as bad as it sounds?    Well the answer is simple, it’s horrible and yes it’s worse than it sounds but it’s also rewarding, fun and at times hilarious!

Not to scale.

Let's face it I'm pretty much everything a cyclist isn't meant to be!  I asked an experienced cyclist for his top tips to cycling success and waited with bated breath as he stroked his chin and looked long and hard into the distance... "weight” he said after what seemed like an eternity.  “I am"  I said patiently.  "No...weight" he said "you need to bloody lose it."   Well I guess I did ask!

It reminded me of a story of a friend who asked an experienced tri-athlete for his advice on training technique"how many meals do you eat a day" the triathlete asked "3"came my friends reply, "well eat 2".

I guess you've realised by now there is a theme going on here!  Weight is the number 1 enemy of the cyclist.  In a sport where road bikes are judged by the gram carrying a few extra stone isn't great.   

OK cards on the table, I started this year at a couple of pounds under 20 stone! Yes I know it's a lot but I’m told I carry it well and have large bones; extremely large bones. :-)

Well, I've always been on the large side but it's never really bothered me.  At 17 I ran everyday and comfortably completed my 1st (and last) half marathon at a little over14 stone! Playing rugby and hockey my weight/size gave me my edge.

So as you can imagine as my rugby, cricket and hockey careers came to an end my love of good food and wine developed this combined with finally giving up smoking ‘hey presto’ 20 stone!

Well that was the size of the problem faced on January the 1st this year 20 stone and less than 6 months until Lands End to John O’Groats.

Calvin's Dad understands

The best advice was not to diet but to train and train and then train a bit more, which I followed dutifully for a few weeks.  Until during one of my regular assessment by Simon (more on Simon to follow) it revealed I was burning muscle and not fat!  Confused you bet I was!

Herbalife protein shakes were purchased (thanks Michelle)and the muscle wastage was solved unfortunately I had by then put some of the weight back on! The combination of Easter and my love of chocolate set me back several weeks!

So here we are 8 weeks to go and I'm now down to 18 stone I need to lose at least another stone before we go which should be achievable but who knows.  Simon’s spin classes are going well and the boot camps with Barri still fill me with dread but as they say “no pain……..