SlimmerAndFitter.com

I got together with Shaun (CycleChat member bromptonfb) and Dave (CC: potsy) again today to do another road ride, a shorter one than last week’s but much hillier – a slightly modified version of my ‘Trauma of Trawden‘ route.

Even with my lack of cycling recently, I wasn’t too worried by the hills or the distance. What did worry me was the forecast of strong winds with gale-force gusts, and a stroing possibility of some heavy rain. Still, ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’ eh?
Aaaaaaaargh – the wind!

I know it isn’t the world’s healthiest lunch, but I really fancied a chip butty (plus mayo) today so I power-walked up the hill to meet Lisa and dragged her off to the cafe, where such a butty was consumed.

At least I got my pulse rate up for 15 minutes and my legs moving again. I’d done no exercise since a ride to Waddington on Sunday because my legs were feeling stiff and tired so I gave them the time they needed to recover. It seems to have worked because they definitely felt stronger today.

After lunch, Lisa and I strolled down the hill together, and then I spent another 20 minutes or so wandering round the local shops for another 20 minutes or so.

I know that these posts aren’t very interesting, but I just want to keep an accurate record of what I’m doing so that one day, I can look back and say “See, that’s where I was going wrong, and that is where I started getting things right!”

Well, I finally got back on my bike today after 10 weeks off due to distraction, bad weather, laziness, family illness and bereavement.

I had arranged a ride from Hebden Bridge to the Country Kitchen cafe in Waddington, taking mainly valley roads rather than my beloved local hills because there is still ice in places on the tops and I didn’t want to take any chances. Also, there was the little matter of me being very overweight and unfit …
Read how I got on

Well, I didn’t get any rides done before tomorrow’s CycleChat forum ride, but I did at least get away from my computer and did two more walks to Heptonstall.

Yesterday, I power-walked it to meet Lisa for lunch at the cafe. We just walked straight down to the shops in town afterwards. Today, I did a slightly longer walk up there with Lisa, via Lee Wood. That was at a leisurely pace. I left her there and walked back home, again via the shops.

These little walks don’t take much time, but I was surprised how they helped keep my fitness level up last year despite doing fewer long walks and bike rides than I’d done in 2009.

Now let’s see how I do on the ride tomorrow…

I’m having a bad winter! I think I’d have been struggling anyway even without my mum getting ill and dying, but that has really got me down and now I’m struggling to get going again…
Continued here

It was pretty gloomy down in the valley today, but I walked up to Heptonstall with Lisa this afternoon and the village and the surrounding hills were actually bathed in broken sunshine.

I left Lisa there and walked back down the hill to go to the shops.

My leg muscles are a bit stiff now, a sure sign that they haven’t done much over the past weeks. It’ll take a week or two to start building up some strength in them again.

I’m retro-posting this a week into the New Year. As you can imagine, I’ve had a lot of things on my mind since my mum died and updating the blog doesn’t seem very important at the moment.
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Overall, 2010 was a pretty bad year for me, but the last quarter was truly awful.
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