Frank Kinlan's Blog

Monday: Morning spinning class at West Kirby followed my a session in the gym. Went on most of the equipment along with a 30 minute session on the crosstrainer.
This had me burning off a paltry 275 calories or a Mars bars worth.
The plan is to loose 4 Kg to get back to what I was last year or at least get close to it. We are looking at close to 5% increase over last year. No wonder I’m finding things hard in the hills.
Now we are talking 36,000 calories in 4 Kg so it isn’t going to happen overnight. As I’m supposed to be on around 2,500 calories a day It’ll mean watching what I’m eating and especially what I’m drinking.
Bought a window that is coming Thursday so that’s taken care of.
Had the chance of making another spinning class to get off to a good start but decided to make sure the window job wouldn’t get delayed.
Carted a bag of plaster and a bag of sand an cement into the house each weighing 25 Kg. One is heavy enough but two is truly frightening.
Camera has packed up as I was trying to download the ride pictures so no audax write up yet.
Tuesday: Morning spinning class booked. Hot class even with the fan. A lot are doing the two classes. Gym for an hour, weight machines and ran a mile at 8.5/9.0 Km/hr. Shower, then home. Seeing as it was throwing it down I booked another class in the evening.
PM work on the house. Looks like the ride is out the window as I need to urgent work before the window arrives on Thursday.
Spinning class at West Kirby. Really hot, no fan. Lots of banter.
Wednesday: Big ride day. Worlds End if the weather is good. The weather not looking good, rode to the Eureka for Breakfast. 85.3 Kg this morning, so the weight is going in the right direction. Home, sort the window out. Spin and maybe the gym.
No gym as it is shut for two days for a refurb. Sheila’s spinning class after a wait. £1 an hour to park is steep. Good class, no second guessing Sheila again. Intervals and pyramiding on sections of the class were hard work for everyone. Hot and humid due to it absolutley lashing down outside. Shower, run to the car, home.
Thursday: Fit a window day. It could have gone a lot worse. No spinning today but bought a Chris Carmichael Time Trial Training DVD. Looks like I’ve got a lot of work to to on my cadence.
Found this on Velonews. http://www.velonews.com/photo/81438
Friday: Depends how Thursday goes. No ride by the looks of things.  Finished off the window, found the receipt for the duff camera. Gym and a spin at West Kirby. Had planed on a training ride with the Northend but the Olympics are on and it’s cycling first thing.
Gym was full of guys hogging machines and not moving on. Bad time five on a Friday. Margarets spinning class, sweated a bucket, a steady build up of intensity followed by a great stretching routine.
Saturday: Cycling at the Olympics first thing. Had planned on a training ride but it can wait. Rain put me off a ride.  Wild Wales route came in the post will plot it as a Course. Got a full refund from Costco for the camera but what to replace it with.
I like the look of the Panasonic FX35 with a wide angle lens but it feels a but lightweight. The Fuji F40fd did have a robust feel to it.
Lost the Wild Wales route as I forgot to save it first.
Sunday: Watch the womens roadrace and a Jack day. Means no ride. Maybe a spin. Feed the ducks on the Liverpool Leeds canal.
Margarets Spinning class at West Kirby.

Monday: Work. The planned evening ride didn’t come off. Well underestimated the price a US postal jacket would go for on Ebay.
Tuesday: Work. The 26 tooth granny rings came at at the astronomical price of £2.99 each, postage free over £5 so I bought two. There shouldn’t be a hill out there now that’ll stop me. Sunday sees me tackling the “Old Shoe” for the first time and another stab at Methodist Hill.
Fitted the new chainring and took it out for a spin, 26X27 is really low. On the flat you’d think the chain had broken. Plan ride in BikeRouteToaster.
Wednesday: Work. Route for Sunday didn’t save and Toaster locked up I’ve got to redo it. Finally got the Course sorted for Sunday, took a few cracks at it. The “Old Shoe” looks steep from the profile but shouldn’t hold any fears with the new gearing.

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=15086

Thursday: Work. Spinning class. I needed this class to counter the Costa Coffees that I’ve been having at work. Hard class because I wanted it to be. Felt good after it.
Friday: First day off but looks like I’ll be spending some it under the Scenic.
£18 for an exhaust clamp!! Thought it would be a 5 minute job, took the best part of three hours. Don’t know whats up with the weather this summer, blowing a gale now. Going to take a chance going out on the toy.
20 mile ride taking in Ness gardens  and Denhall Lane where I met Kev coming down. Tested the new lower gearing which didn’t get a good test as its a max of 10 %. Tried the path along the front which ended coming out at The Harp. Then it was on to another Killer Climb at Lower Heswall, it’s been in Cycling Weekly but I’ve never rode up it until today.Redwood Drive.It’s a max of 16% with most of it around 14-15%. The final section up towards the Beacons is rough but not as steep.
Gym and a spin.
Margarets class at West Kirby always good because of the post class stretching.
Not as intense as Barbara’s classes, but it ratchets up throughout the class never backing off the resistance until the end. Had the fan for all the class which evaporates a lot of the sweat but increases the salt content of what is left.
Saturday: Light ride day. Met up with Barry and Chicago for a ride to the Blue Moon Cafe. Met the Northend on the cyclepath along the Dee which ended up at the Yaght and the Nags. Came home with something I was expecting at the start of the Day.

Sunday: Audax from Upton Magna. 130k.
Started at 9, a great day not without a few hiccups. The Old Shoe proved a bit to much for the 26 tooth granny ring. Stopped near the top where it goes to 20%. The minimum gradient is 10% with it peaking at 22%. The heartrate reaching 182 bpm and me really in the redzone. I should be doing these climbs as a matter of course rather than one offs.
Good end to the week. Ride write up with a few pictures if the camera wasn’t misted up.

Monday: Work. Home, blog.
Tuesday: Work. Home, blog. Caught the Tour on ITV 4.
Wednesday: Work. Lifestyle and Weight Management followup class. Couldn’t do the spinning class, watched the Tour.
Thursday: Off. Spinning at West Kirby, gym because I need it. A hot hard class had me up to 183 BPM at one stage, sweated buckets. Gym afterwards, weights, 175 calories on the Concept 2 rowing machine and 100 more on the side stepper was a Mars bars worth.
Booked tonights class too.
Turned up early to see a traffic warden patroling the car park.Had a good class but it was at a lesser pace than this morning.
For the first time that I can remember we had a front row  V the back row duel. Back row very vocal.
Entered Horseshoe Panorama Audax, 130 Km with a climb up Methodist Hill thrown in for good measure. Hopefully have the 26 tooth granny ring fitted by the event.
Friday: No spinning so might as well go for a ride. Going to make a day of it, a Steve Cummings Training ride by the look of things.
Steve Cummings Training ride it was, set out at 9 o’clock weather looking good, things went to plan until Oil Sites Road where it said there was no access to Elton or Ince so I diverted to the Cheshire Oaks roundabout and went out to Dunham Hill. Dunham Arms is no more and the site was looking a bit of a mess. Surprising the number of country pubs you see closed these days. Stopped to take a picture of Primrose Lane as it is the steepest part of the ride.
A bit further on while looking at the 705 Map I thought about a bit of a detour, ended up doing a bit of last weeks Northend ride.
First stop was the Station Cafe at Delamere, still a great cakestop. Been up for sale for a year. It was going to be turned into a restaurent for the new caravan site across the rails which incidently was full.
Next up is the run through Cotebrooke past the Millpool and by Oulton Park.
Free practice for whatever car event they are running this weekend.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/417225
73 and a bit miles
Spinning class at West Kirby.
Saturday: Plan to go out early as I want to see the Tour Time Trial. Rode out to the Eureka for breakfast, very quiet as everyone was out on a ride. Returned via Ness Gardens after putting in a loop down Denhall Lane.
Been playing around with the tri bars seeing what difference they make and it is at least 1 mph. The other is getting into a higher gear as when you go into the tuck the decreased wind resistance means you need to grab a higher gear as soon as you are in position.
Don’t know whether to go the whole hog and get a complete bike.
Still plenty of hours left after the Time Trial so went the cash  machine at Gayton, a motorist assuming I’m not going the garage nearly taking me out. After that it was a lap around the Wirral coast taking in West Kirby, Hoylake, Moreton, New Brighton and Seacombe waterfronts. Time trialed down the front at Seacombe with 25 mph coming up easily only to get baulked a couple of times. Thought it would have took longer , but glad I went out again, 28.31 miles. Home to record the the time trial again as the harddrive was full on the recorder.
Watched the Chris Boardman Hour on ITV4. Looking at the effort he was putting in I’ve left a few things too late in my lifetime.
One of the highlights of my turnaround is riding the velodrome. Riding the track is like doing the Obree dvd “The Flying Scotsman” for real. Once your on the front you get a really magical experience of riding the same track where World Records are set.
Taster sessions are cheap and include bike hire.
Sunday: Jack day. Museum and Liverpool 1. The Super Lamb bananas are everywhere with a map available for them with boxes to tick off, there’s a good ride in this somewhere.
Spinning at West Kirby, hot session and a virtually full class meant I was on the back row.
Checked out Vals bike as there are going to be some light evening rides starting tommorow. The Colnago Carbitubo getting an airing now I have a Mapei/Colnago top.

Second year of this event for me but I haven’t learnt much in that year. This was the last event in the series and I’d taken the day off work to ride it.
Maybe I shouldn’t have done the Spinning class and gym session but that is bye the bye.
JJ from the Sunlight was there and Clive was there too.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/365634

No lap times this time as I hadn’t set up the Garmin Edge 705 correctly.

The first lap has someone going off the front just like I did last year. For a novice like me it prove irresistible not to chase it down. This happens a few times until I eventually went off the back.
It is a dangerous time riding near the back  because there is a rubber band effect. If you haven’t got it in you to to get back on before the pace is upped  your history. I’d followed Clive on one lap  and it was obvious that race tactics play a lot in his rides. A lap later I fell off the back.
Once your a few yards off the back you may as well be 100. The tow is lost and your into time trialing mode.  This happened on the fifth lap this time.

 

I’d waved the meat wagon past and I was on my own hoping I wasn’t going to get dragged off the track. Others were starting to suffer too with a few calling it a day and taking the pit lane exit.
I eventually caught a chap doing his first event and looking at the colour of his number he was over 60. We chatted as we rode around the circuit thinking we were on the last lap.

Next thing two riders flash past us, we weren’t on the last lap, we had just got lapped.
Trying to up your pace is hard when you’ve been taking it easy. The important thing was not to  interfere with the race. The whole field came streaming past at a fair rate of knots but it was still a good evening. Costs the TLI £500 a night  to run this event while other circuits are are virtually free.  It’s on a Monday as from Tuesday it is British Superbike Practice.

 

Monday: Morning spinning class at West Kirby followed by a session in the gym. Virtually the whole back row is in pink. Took it steady with the max being 170 BPM in the final seconds of the class. TLI roadrace at Oulton Park tonight.
Felt good, lets hope it stay with me tonight.
Watch Tour and sort the Toy out in the afternoon.

TLI Roadrace at Oulton Park. Learnt nothing from last year, finished a lap down. Write up, pictures and a Garmin link to follow. Tri bars to fit back on the Toy for tommorow. In hindsight I should have left them on.  Still a great day, got talking to a chap who also got fell off the back. It was his first race and looking at his number he was over 60. More in the  post.
Tuesday: Work. Brimstage Time Trial in the evening. Last one of the club championship. Need to work on the time trialing. Looking at Sundays results for the open 25 there are a lot under an hour and I’m nowhere near that level.
A fair number turned up for the last event of the series with plenty to play for.
Fitted the tri bars when I got in from work but a bump by the Grange on the trial had the whole bar rotate to what is was last week. Had Brad on my tail again and got passed just after the first roundabout. The good news was I was within sight of my minute man.
I’ve got to work on power climbing as I know I’m loosing shedloads on them.
After Drayton motors I’m catching my minute man and also Allan who is two minutes in front. The problem is I’ve got cars that won’t overtake between us.
Nothing for it but to go down the inside. It did work but I should have done it a bit sooner as every second counts.
Time for the night was 17:42 which is a new PB for this course. Previous was 18:51.
I still felt slow going past the Seven Stars but it is all relative. To take over a minute out of your previous time is great.
Retired to the club room after the event for banter and beers. Rode home before the light went.
Had a look at Chicago’s bike with a new Zipp disc wheel on the back. It weighs next to nothing. Barry goes from strength to strength with Chicago’s old disc wheel in his bike. Showed me his £10 helmet from Ebay. Aerodynamic but you wouldn’t want to hit the deck  in it. I won’t ride without a helmet these days, I’ve only got one head and want to keep it undamaged. 
At the end of the day it is all relative, if your improving  you’ll set a faster time than your peer who isn’t. My peer is Dave Large, managed to put 8 seconds into him tonight so it was a great result never mind the handicap.
Wednesday: Ride day. Set the bike up first though.
Out to the Eureka for breakfast and then it started to rain. Riding out through Capenhurst a few abandoned the ride and I had thought about it myself. Nip back home and watch the Tour. Just as well I didn’t as it proved to be a good ride the rain stopped and the sun came out on the way back. Stop was at Delamere Visitor Centre returning through Cotebrook. Downhill back to the Eureka. Windy on the way home, down to 10mph.
Picked up the DVD recorder, £185 for a DVD drive is a bit steep. Still got all of last years Tour on the harddrive so need a method of copying it.
No spin or gym as they are all on strike.
Thursday: No spin or gym again, Tesco for the comic and Aldi for the fruit which is cheap. Don’t need any of the Aldi cycling offers this time.
Watched the Tour. More bad news with another rider caught doping.
Friday: Got to grips with BikeRouteToaster Course Points. Plotted a course to the eureka and then rode it only to find it closed. So Ness Gardens it was, only to reach the lights at Two Mills and have the gear cable snap. Climb out of the dip in Puddington taken in the granny ring. I did have a spare cable but no means of taking the alternative nipple off the other end of it. The difficult part is getting the old nipple out of the shifter. Home for the Tour and just dodged the rain too.
Added the Garmin 705 CoursePoints page.
Another win for Mark Cavendish and it was time to sort the indexing out on the Toy. Going through the Missing Link undid the clean I had given it.
Margaret’s spinning class at West Kirby to round the day off.
Saturday: Last day off, got to make the most of it. Woke up looking at the binder of Pro Cycling on the bedside table. Riccardo Ricco was on it so I had to reread it. He’s been on this stuff since he was 17 and has Pantanni’s masseur.

Went to Chester and parked up by the Race Course with the Lord Mayors parade on. So far so good. Walking up to the centre the heavens opened. Hid in a doorway for a while and then made a break for it. The parade got a good soaking, medival dress just soaked it up. Kids were crying as there was nowhere to shelter and this was probably the first time they got wet. Brightened up latter and you would have wondered what all the fuss was about. Spotted Lance on the way there.
No ride but a fair trade off. Duttons for lunch, forgot my shopping so had to go back for it.  Will leave a bigger tip next time. Don’t have anything with chips in it as they are frozen  chips and soak up the fat.
Sunday: Work.

Now that Discovery Channel are no more there is more and more fake clothing appearing on Ebay. To the casual buyer it appears as genuine but the quality is poor.
I have a pair of fake socks that are nothing like the originals.
Here is a link to one of them.

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/tims2400/

He only gets away with it because he doesn’t infringe the Nike trade mark by mentioning Nike in the description. They are very poor copies. The genuine stuff is made in Italy and has a screen printed rubberised Nike logo on the front (of shorts)that will wear away with continuous use. New it should come with all the tags.
Original kit wears and washes very well and has good graphics on it. Fake stuff looks the part but why would you want to pay a rogue for blag  gear when you can have the real McCoy for similar money.

I’ve just had a look at my genuine shirts and my 2007 shirt has a white Nike logo above the vertical Discovery writing (0n your right when wearing the jersey).

Another clue is none of the Discovery Channel stuff used “Cool max”. The pictures are misleadingly small to confuse.

I bought some of the Green 2007 Discovery Jerseys that were only for the swansong Tour. These are now as rare as rocking horse shit. I’ve already been asked for one. That and a George Hincapie team issue 2006 jersey that I got off Ebay.

Monday: Work. Home to watch the end of the Tour de France. Followed by The Science of Lance Armstrong.
Tuesday: Morning spinning class booked at West Kirby followed by the Gym. Watch the Tour. Pulford Time Trial in the evening.
Listened to the obesity debate on Radio 4 on the way to West Kirby, a BMI of over 30 limiting your treatment on the NHS.
Had a decent spinning class seeing as I had ran out of Quaker Oat Granola, had an Aldi isotonic drink after the class and a good 30 minutes in the gym.
Watched the Tour time trial. Swap the wheels over on the toy and try and break 25 minutes on tonights club 10.
Start 13th, could do with the wind dropping.
Added the Aldi Cycling Offers page to the site as they are coming around again.

Quite a few turned up tonight but it was really windy. The number 13 got put on upside down as per Fabian Cancellara. Chicago Dave notices as he has been watching Eurosport  too. Everyone lost time tonight, I lost 30 seconds on last week but have the GPS data to see where it was.

Looking at it, I was quicker in two sections and suffered just about everywhere else. I was trying to turn a big gear tonight which is fine with the wind  behind you  but I did slow down on some sections as I didn’t want to come off the tuck to change gear.
If I’m going to go for bar end shifters it probably means a new bike.
Couldn’t see the 705 data while riding as I played around with the screen views and made a mess of it.
Andy Walsh’s mounting system is the best I have seen with it mounted on a cross piece between the two tri bars.
I could play around with the position a bit before taking the plunge but it might be a bit better and cheaper to improve me. 
Wednesday:  Ride day. Great to see Steve Cummings going to the Olympics.
Rode to the Eureka for breakfast calling in at the cash machine at Gayton. It’s just great watching someone fill up a 4×4 with over £100 worth of petrol or diesel.
Only took the Discovery windshell which is showerproof.
Always talk about Tuesday’s time trial on the Wednesday these days.
The rain held off until the stop at the cafe in Caerwys. Nice Cafe, never been there before. Showers on the way back with wet roads meant I dropped back a bit. No  point in getting soaked on a wheel with no mudguards.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/323833
I’d been playing tail gunner all the ride since it split going up the Halkyns. This was until Woodbank at the end of the ride. A lorry caused me to drop back then it was on to the tri bars to catch up as I’d built up a fair head of speed there was no point of taking prisoners. I flew past the group to a few shouts and Lionel setting off in pursuit. All good fun and plenty of comments back at the Eureka.
Rain finally came in and It was time trial mode back home in it. Average 21 mph but hit all the lights on red.
Margaret’s spinning class at West Kirby when I had dried out.
Thursday: Booked into the morning Spinning class at West Kirby.
A repaired wheel to pick up and a bookcase to return to Argos.
15 minutes in the gym and then Barbara’s spinning class. No HRM so did it on feel.
Got asked twice how many classes I do a week, well it’s as many as I can fit in. I use a class as my 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day.
Went hard for the final spin to Crank That.
Picked up the Times along with Cycling Weekly.
Opened up times2 to be greeted with the headline Thugs of the road. Three pieces from a cyclist a taxi driver and a pedestrian. All following on from the fine for the cyclist on the pavement who killed a girl.
Cycling Weekly this week is probably one of the best I have read.
DVD recorder isn’t recording to or reading disks and I’m running out of HDD space.
Built a flat pack bookcase which was a result as the duff one with damaged chipboard and missing screws was exchanged fairly effortlessly.
Attacked the Panasonic DVD recorder after buying a lens cleaner only to find the DVD motor wasn’t spinning the disk. Not a happy bunny.
Northend monthly meeting which I had intended to ride to but drove to.
Friday: Last day off, had planned on it being a ride day. See what the weather is like in the morning.
Refund from VirginMedia to bank and the DVD recorder to take to Ellesmere Port.
Watched the Tour, took hours to get XP service pack 3 installed. Rain stopped a ride so went to the gym and a spinning class at West Kirby.
Edit a few things on the site. Another Tour drug scandal breaking, never mind that it is a French team, the rider once rode with Lance Armstrong. The whole world is hellbent on linking Armstrong with doping years after he retired. I was sceptical as there was so much bad press about him. That’s the thing with the press there is no mileage in a good news story. If I hadn’t turned things around without drugs, an intestine bypass or stomach stapling I’d still doubt he did it clean.
This latest doping scandal probably won’t be last. Chuck the whole team out, the riders still haven’t learnt. Who on earth wants support a team of dopers. I can’t get to grips with the Simpson Saga, why make a hero out of a guy who died on the Tour because he was on amphetamines and alcohol. 
Enough is enough, work tomorrow.
Saturday: Work, got home to watch Mark Cavendish take another Tour stage. Blog and look at anouther routeing site.
Sunday: Work.

Monday: First day of my four off had me booked into Barbara\’s spinning class.  Packed class with two first timers getting the shock of their lives about how hard these classes are.
More to the point how fit the regulars are. Only one bike on the back row meant one of them had to go on the front and first timers just hate being at the front.  I think they were convinced to come back by the woman that was in front of me. I mentioned about how many calories I burn in a class and the weightloss because I gave it a good go today.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/272650 

If you have a look at the chart there is a section at the end where I\’m flat out at 182 BPM.
Gym next for some machine weights and that proverbial mile run. 1.6 Km but at the increased pace of 10 Km/hr up from last weeks 9.5 Km/hr.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/272651 A steady pace means the heartrate also plateaus too. More weight machines then shower and stop off at Aldi for some fruit.
Felt good too. Had planned an evening ride or another class but no point going too hard.
As it was B+Q took about two hours out of the afternoon so that was most of the day gone.
Doing the BNECC club 10 tomorrow night missing the TLI Oulton Park race. My carbon Aero bars have got to go as I need to put the Bontager bars back on to fit Tri bars.

Going to be playing around with the look of the website with pages getting updated to reflect the site being 2 years old now.
Tuesday: Spinning class at West Kirby. Took it relativley easy in view of tonights 10 coming up. Swapped bars and took the bike down to Eureka Sports to sort out some Tri bars. Put some new bar tape on and that\’s about it. Can\’t be any worse than last weeks fiasco where I turned up at the wrong start.

Had a good ride taking 41 seconds out of my previous time only 7 seconds outside the magic 25 minute barrier. There was a pretty strong headwind  going up to the bridge. Time trialing is a numbers game, you need to be flat out for the 10 miles. Anything less means you are loosing time. 25 minutes is a benchmark for a 10, I\’m just outside it.

Brad took 2 minutes out of me on  the road which means he is going well. It\’s all relative, you can\’t loose sleep about being passed by younger better riders. Or older better riders. I was beaten by Keith Boardman again and he is 70 riding fixed.

Once on the Tri bars you don\’t want to come off them. The ones I have have no shifters at the end so changing gear is an event.

A full out Tri bike isn\’t going to be much use to me until I get a bit more performance into me. 10 miles at nigh on 24 mph is great. One thing about Tri bars, they require 100% concentration on the road ahead. Even looking down at the Edge 705 takes your eyes off the road and can unsteady you.That and a lorry passing within 3 feet of me at 60 mph.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/280613

Wednesday: Ride day. Stunning day when I set off then it clouded over and I was wondering if it was wise to go out without the windshell. Don\’t know if I\’m due a Lifestyle and Weight Management followup class as I\’ve lost track of dates and lost the contact details for the course.
60 mile ride to the Cabin Cafe via a scenic route. Chester and NorthWales CTC were out early and we bumped into Merseyside CTC at the Cabin Cafe. I had a few moments on the back playing around with the Tri bars.
Lifestyle and Weight Management followup class.
Mainly talked about various gyms and classes.
Thursday: Gym at West Kirby followed by a morning Spinning class. Bumped into Ron from the previous nights Lifestyle and weight management class.
Forgot the HRM strap so did it all on feel.
What has become apparent is two years on some of the links to the course are out of date as it is buried deep within the Wirral PCT.
More fun with VirginMedia Not, how often have you heard the cheque is in the post!
With that I lost all the Wireless Router settings.
Evening spinning class at West Kirby, didn\’t think much of Eurosports Tour de France team presentation after seeing the 2007  one in London last year.
Friday: Work.
Saturday: Work. Just got in time for the Tour de France.
Sunday: Work. Top Gear and Tour de France when I got in made it a reasonable end to a day you\’d want to forget. Did a search on google for various things and quite surprised at the site links. \”GarminConnect\” number 3 in a Google search. Other links on BikeRadar.

Monday: Turned up for the spinning class at West Kirby and managed to get a bike as someone had cancelled. It proved to be a tough class with me going through 700ml of water and then getting a drink out of the machine as I needed a bit of energy to go the gym.
Ran a mile @ 9.5 km/hr did some weights and a session on the abs machine. 200reps @20kg but it didnt feel like it was doing me any good. I spoke to Margaret about the site and what I write about as it’s only fair they know about it. I was then speaking to Betty  too as she is an instructor for some off the swimming classes. Told her about the weightloss and how I write up the classes as she gets a mention every now and then only to have it confirmed by one of my readers.
Thanks for that it really made my day, especially knowing the Cafe in the hills above Bala.

Margaret knew about the Lifestyle and Weight Management course when it was a council run scheme a good few years ago.
Shower, home. Suns out so it’s time to live the dream and get out on the bike.

Had a good ride, 28 miles around the coast with a cake stop at Vale Park cafe and another frustrating one at Morrisons. Diet coke and an apple streudal under £2 not a big deal if I could pay for it. Everybody in front is now paying with chip and pin, two teas, chip and pin it. Went out the hard way up Grange Road but it no longer has fear attached to it. It’s just another climb, likewise Thurstaton cutting I used to struggle up here too.

Home for 5 with a low battery warning on the Forerunner 50.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/238459

The ride link to GarminConnect is above.

Another class at europa tonight to keep anon happy. Also good training for tommorow.
Tuesday: 14 mile Time Trial, the race of truth.
Looked at Google Analytics for the first time in a while and it really does put things in perspective. 12,794 page views with the 705 page comeing out top. 101 for the Maps page which I haven’t done anything to for ages. I suspect it is for Daves Cafe link.
If I have an off day an awful lot of people know about it.
Spinning class at West Kirby and a trip out to Broxton to check out the time trial course. 
Clean the Iceni too.
Drove the course and was filled with apprehension. Called in at Eureka Sports to get some info on Tri bars as it looks like I’ll be needing a pair. Had a kip in the chair as I needed a bit of a rest fitted the wheels filled the water bottle and headed out to the start.
Don’t know what’s happened but no one turned up. I even drove along to Farndon and found the Fibrax 10 was running.

Thought I had lost the plot, turned up at the wrong venue at the wrong time on the wrong day. One piece of good news I did pick up was that the TLI Oulton park roadraces are on and start next Tuesday. Trouble is there is an event clash.
Wednesday: Ride day. Anything an happen when you turn up at the Eureka. What I haven’t mentioned that on Monday’s ride I bumped into Cannondale Kev on the coastal cycle path at Moreton. He has just joined the Northend  and he is out tommorow. Lost a couple of stone now just going out on his own and riding his bike. 
He has the same problem I had the Disco bibtights being too loose around the leg when you loose some weight and drop a clothes size.
I thought I was loosing it big time only to discover I was wearing XXL bibshorts.
Franks Breakfast at the Eureka is now two years old. Same as a normal breakfast but with no butter on the toast. The beans are a protein portion on the British Heart Foundation Diet ( link at the top of the page).
There was a fair bit of diet chit chat among the women waiting for Margarets class this morning, a fair number of them have been doing spinning for a long time and are looking for a tough class to keep in shape.

Weather looked a bit mixed when I set off for the Eureka with the nagging question of what happened to the 14 mile TT. Within a minute of entering the cafe I got asked where I was last night. Broxton, but nobody turned up. I should have been at Aldford instead.
Club rides don’t have to stick to CTT courses, DOH!!!

Ride went out to Delamere Forest, missed the Yeld on the way back and ended up just being short of 59 miles.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248425

Rode home from the Eureka with Kev who has just joined the Northend.
Booked a spinning class for 6:15 and it was empty with Margaret taking it. Another new stretch at the end, shower and home.
Pity about the time trial but it hasn’t been a bad week so far. Work for the next four days means no big rides.
Thursday:  Work, flat battery on the Scenic and checking out the Iceni I found a spoke in the rear wheel had cracked a section of the rim out. New rim time but they don’t do Mavic MA3 rims anymore. This was the number one bike for a while. The wheel off the Colnago Carbitubo will fit until it is sorted but the Conti has to come off it as it will only last 5 minutes on it and it cost me £30.
Friday:Work. Spinning class at West Kirby which I just made only to find two free bikes. It is not usually this busy on a Friday.  Louises Thursday morning stand in for Barbara went down very well. Likewise Margarets class went down well, you can ditch the gel seatcovers as you’ll spend half of it out the saddle. Lost the fan halfway through the class an sweat was pouring out of me.
I’m going to have to ditch the Costa Coffee latte,s at work.
Saturday: Work. Might try to get out on the bike when I get home. The weather hasn’t been too helpful lately.
Sunday: Small event on, Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge. Set to be a classic in the making. Top club riders worried about making the cut off on the mega route. I’m in work  so will miss it.  Just about every major climb in North Wales in it.
The scales read 84.4 Kg again which is a result. Weather looked a bit grim in the morning but fine in the after noon and I’m stuck in work wishing I was riding. Will make up for it next week. I hope.
Home, blog and watch Top Gear which is one of the few things I watch these days.
 

Monday: Work followed by a spinning class a the West Kirby. Class overbooked but sorted in the end. Barbara’s birthday so the class sang happy birthday to her.
Took the heartrate up to 180 BPM on the final sprint. Shower, home and upload the ride pictures to the laptop.
Tuesday: Woke up to a techy nightmare, no internet access as the router has lost it’s settings. Website down. Morning Spinning class at West Kirby then a session in the Gym.
Spent the rest of the day trying to get back online and when I did there was another downer. I’ve missed all three of the TLI Oulton Park roadraces, the last one being last night.
It was something Janet said on the ride on Sunday about the evening been light that got me thinking.
Spinning class at West Kirby, second of the day as work tommorow
Wednesday: Work, home, blog. Still need to update Sunday’s ride post before I forget it all. Good news on 705 multiple Routes though.
Thursday: Work. Blog when I got home. A Lifestyle decision dropped through the letterbox today. Take a potential 6k paydrop and get put on Monday to Friday or take the cash and have a potential year off.  This is only my second job in 48 years pity to see it go.
Friday: Work. Fully booked Spinning class at West Kirby started with 7 empty bikes. Would have been 8 if I hadn’t phoned up for one. Quite hot too. Got my start number for the Tuesday 14 TT, number 2 with Andy 3 minutes behind me. Got to check out the start as I’m new to all this. Things need to go without complications at the last minute.
Saturday: Work. Last day, the longest day. I’ve gone with my decision that I’ve had enough. Next Thursday is a make or break day.
Sunday: Ride day, woke up in time to get the Eureka but had a change of plan.
Went to Liverpool 1 and thought about doing a BananaLamb ride, there are 250 to do and they seem to have captured the imagination. Kids are climbing all over them and they are in the middle of roundabouts to boot. This should be a picture based ride, maybe not get all of them but the locations.
Spinning at West Kirby blew the cobwebs out of me. Had a go of the Nike bibshorts, the Elite ones are really good. Looks like Nike have lost the plot with the cycling gear. Got to grab it while I can as it’s not going to be around for much longer.
Managed to get the wireless router working again which saved me £40 so not a bad day. Wind as up and saw a few trees down so perhaps it was wise not to go out.

Next ride day at this rate is Wednesday.