Quarter of a century!

We have had a great time over Christmas, the kids and Kate have enjoyed themselves and we have had a busy time meeting family and friends.
I had a training session on my bicycle, on boxing day, using a Sunnto T6 heart rate monitor. An excellent piece of equipment, which, I will describe in more detail, another time.
I also had a great practice session on my Honda. Using the new techniques to help me with my concentration, I felt great riding and I had so much fun.

On my way back from working on the track this morning, I was still thinking about how much fun I had, yesterday. This lead me on to thinking how great it is that at 33 years old, I love riding bikes.

When I was a kid (around the age of 7), I remember that as soon as I got home from school, I would throw my school bag in the hall, get my B.M.X. and ride the wheels off it, making jumps and tracks, to race myself around. I started riding motocross bikes when I was 8 years old and started racing the year after.

I have been riding motocross for 25 years and still absolutely, love it. I am consumed with it and now, more than ever, my desire to fulfill my goals can be felt in my body.
The feeling I have is just below my heart and is quite tight, warm and in the shape of a smooth, large pebble (about the size of your fist), This is a reason why I am unable to be 'less serious'!
This also demonstrates the reason why I need to take a different approach to my racing, so that, I will achieve my goals.

Dark,cold mornings...

Swimming is great, My heart rate is reaching quite high numbers, there are recovery periods and my speed and technique is improving.

Also, it's a great way to wake up in a morning.

I started swimming at 7a.m. this morning, as I left the house, it was dark, cold (approx -1), the padlock on the gate was frozen and the van windows frozen over. What kind of picture do you have in your mind?

For me it was great, the cold, still air smelt really clean and felt fresh as I took deep breathes in, a small number of birds where singing because the day is starting. The sun will be coming up in a short time and the ice sparkles on my white van. The warm water that I was pouring onto the windscreen felt soft on my hands and the van engine sounded great, ticking over, as it was the only other sound other than the birds and when I get in my van to leave, I am leaving to improve my fitness, to help me reach my goal and the method to do this, is swimming, Fantastic.

I really enjoyed training this morning!

Swimming

Whilst I feel like pulling my hair out because I have no current training programme, I have decided that, I will kick back and enjoy the festive period.
There is no alternative anyway! Our kids are really excited that Father Christmas will be here soon and I get excited because they're excited and the result is a very lively household.
In fact, you may be mistaken for thinking that it is Christmas every day in our house!

By kicking back, I will be using parts of my old swimming programme. I say parts of it because it involves different types of easy and hard sessions. The parts that I will use from this is only the the harder sessions.
As my fitness has improved, I find that the easier sessions are too short and I love swimming so much that I like to train for at least 30 minutes. The harder sessions usually last around 40 minutes.

So, I guess, I will be kicking forwards, rather than kicking back, this Christmas!

Concentration

Two days ago, I had a practice day on a hard pack track (soil dirt with stone/rock underneath). It's the first time I have riden hard park scince July and I enjoyed it so much.

My speed was acceptable to me because I knew where, I am to improve and I am beginning to reproduce the feelings I had when my speed was at it's best.

I did, however, learn a very important lesson. Whilst I was practicing, there was a small group of riders having a training session. During my 3rd practice session, my concentration went from 'keeping on the correct line' to 'what is the group doing at the side of the track'. My concentration only went on to the other riders for, may be, 10 seconds, however, the consequences after that where that my thoughts went onto telling myself off for letting this happen, which went on for, may be, another 30 seconds. During this time I made lots of small mistakes, missing my line in turns and getting the entry in to turns slightly wrong.

The lesson that I have learned from this experience, through some coaching I have received, from Ashley Scott at Mindracing, is that I need to make sure that next time I practice (and each time after that!), I channel my concentration in to specific areas for each session.

Pratice

Today, I have been riding on a bumby, deep sand track. It was great and a lot of fun. I know how fast I want to ride my bike and at the moment I will need to build it up and it will come back.

A little patience, plenty of discipline and a lot of practice is required.

Race against time!

For the past 12 weeks I have been doing the easy part of achieving my goal....becoming psychically fit and getting bikes to ride.

Having a psychical training programme has made getting fitter, really fun and easy, however, before I started my training, I made a commitment to myself, that I would not throw myself completely into my motocross training until I was in a position where I can race for the whole season, to avoid 'resource depletion'.

This I am finding my biggest challenge as, I am nearly their with support, however, I really could do with some more, of which, I will keep seeking.

I have found a new area that I want clarity, I need to produce, quick and effective results with my bike training and therefore require a specific training programme. This I am working on and I will write about the programme as I get it completed.

What I am finding tough at the moment, is being so motivated to achieve my goals and not letting myself loose on my bike training, which I have in the workshop waiting to go. Also, I am very aware that my first British championship race is on March 11th, this is only 13 weeks away!

Perception of effort Vs Actual heart rate...with a difference

I've had a session in the gym this morning and for the first time in many months, I used a treadmill.
I really enjoyed this session and what was really fun was noticing how my body was responding as I went from one training zone in to another.

On my first set, I started in my higher sub-aerobic zone ( I wanted to be inbetween my lower and upper aerobic zone). To get my heart rate into the next zone I increased the pace gradually. Without looking at my heart rate monitor I could feel that I had entered the lower end of my aerobic zone as my breathing changed from light breathing to controlled heavier breathing. I could almost feel my body starting to use a different energy system.

Towards the end of the session, as the stress of the exercise was increasing (due to the length of time exercising), my heart rate had climbed to the ceiling of my aerobic zone.
I can tell that I stayed in the right zone as my breathing was still controlled and heavier than earlier in the session, however, I know that, when I pass this point into my anaerobic zone my breathing is laboured and the stress on my body feels more taxed compared to the aerobic zone.

I would be really interested, to see, how close my perception of each training zone is compared to results from an actual maximum fitness test with specific heart rate numbers!

And so continues, my interest in, Perception of effort Vs Actual heart rate

Getting the bike dirty...

Well, I have been out three times on my bike now and it's tough. At the moment my speed is low and my bike fitness is poor. I have a lot of work to do and some planning to improve my bike fitness.

I am really pleased with the weather at the moment, we have had some rain, however, I've still been able to ride and this is great.