Ok its Sunday so I've got a bit of recounting to do as my last entry was Thursday. On Friday I decided to do the run on the treadmill at the gym again and see if I could up the cruising speed on the speed interval training. The answer was yes. I put the speed up to 8.9mph for the first 25mins and had enough energy at the end to actually increase the speed in the last 5 minutes by 0.1 every minute and hit the sprint button for the last minute in the 30. Road running as predicted is pushing my boundaries much better than the treadmill did. Just need to wake up early enough to do it!Rest of the gym sesion was fairly normal I got in a little earlier than normal so I was able to do a couple of extra machine work outs but the bike work out was a wash. The first machine I got in was defective at the higher levels and I found the pedals would 'slip' like they weren't connected to the load anymore. I oinly did the first 5mins on that before switching after letting the PTIs know. Decided not to over do the bike in favour of the strength exercises. I should really sign up for some of the spinning classes again. I did them a couple of years ago and they do break you out of your comfort zone. Its just a question of what I want to sacrifice to do them. If I go runnning in the morning and then don't do either the run or the cycle that should leave me with the hour the spinning class needs. Only proble is the classes are either at 18:00 or 19:00 so I'd have to get the rest of the session in on time before I go in and I know from experience that could be tough. Maybe once a week would be too bad even if I lose some of the strength work around it.
Right 50 length in the pool as happy as larry. Still not happy with my leg movement. The kicking should be a constant thing but its at a different rythem to the arm movement so I end up only kicking hard with my arm stoke on the glide and using my arms to drag me through the water more. This isn't efficent or fast and its something I need to work on a lot.
The new bike thing is also on my mind a lot over the last three days. A couple of my workmates are saying 'just get it' probably because they are sick of me talking about it. (its only been two days!) Looking at the price range v quality I want to spend about £1500. I could get that on the credit card and pay it back over time but I'm a bit worried about the interest repayments as it will cost me more in the long run and more importantly it removes my safety net of credit. We're still trying to sell the house and if I need to move out quickly I might need to spend a grand or two on house utensils and others. If I spend now I'd be down to a safety net of around £500 instead although I'd still have the overdraft. Going into that much debt that quickly is not a good idea.
To sop some of the "want", I went to Bristow's bike shop near my parents house and went in to ask for some friendly advice and to pick up some reflective arm bands and a new rear light. The winter nights are drawing in but I still want to ride to work for as long as I can.
Basically I was shown the differences between the MTBs and the roadies. She talked me out of getting a triathlon bike to start with. As A: they are very uncomfortable if you're not used to the sprint position and B: They are useless in traffic as you have the gears and brakes separate. They are built to go fast in competition. Thats it. As I want to take this bike to work and let the hardtail revert back to being my weekend bike I thought it best to get a standard road bike, and if I wanted, I could convert it with aero bars and the like.
The two bikes she recommended were the Trek 2 series and the Giant Defy bikes. These range from £800 to £1800 depending where you stick your pin. For me its between the Giant Defy Alliance or the Trek 2.3. The 2.3 is more expensive at £1300 but I think its a much better bike for that. I can save a hundred off that with the giant. looking on the net these are cheaper at other retailers. So there may be room to manoeuvre.
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