Rest Day

I am going to take a full rest day today as my legs are sore and I want to stay fresh for the weekend as We have gates tomorrow and I want to go to Bristol or Tiverton on Sunday for a change.

I have been looking online for a handlebar mount lap timer as I have been using Strava but it seems to be a bit hit and miss so I wanted something a little more accurate.

I want to start recording my lap times and first straight times to see how I am progressing as at the moment I am not recording anything unless I use specific shorts that my phone fits into which is a pain and the cadence meter I bought the other week was also useless and is going back on ebay soon.

I figured a stop watch would be easy and can easily be moved between bikes. I am going to investigate how I am going to record my lap times on my phone or maybe go really old school and buy a book to record them in depending on what apps I can find.

I am also working on an idea for the app if I can't find anything online as I want to learn to program so this may be a great excuse to start learning.

With the timer I am going to break the track into segments so I can record first straights to the hole shot line on the first berm, first and second straights to the middle of the second berm, first, second and third straights to the middle of the third straight and then full laps.

I can also do a mixture of these in a session to get an idea of where I need to improve to get faster.

Easy Day

Had an easy day today my right wrist and forearm are still hurting. I decided to go to Crucial early to drop off the S&M and bits and the Dialled 20" to get the S&M built up using some of the bits from the Dialled and a new rear cog and chain ring. Hopefully it will be ready for Sunday or early next week.

I then went to Bristol Patchway track and did about 10 full speed first straights jumping the second double before the wind got too gusty so I did another 10 full speed first straights manualing the second double instead of jumping then I came home as I have to go into the office in a bit to pick up a pen drive to format a server before my shift tonight.

I am also going to drop off the Haro Junior into the bike shop near my work to get it tuned up and a new freewheel on it ready to give to the club hopefully at the weekend. It has the new wheels and new grips on it it just needs to be serviced to make sure it is safe.

First Straights

Was feeling a bit tired today so I went to the track and did first straights to test out the new forms and stem. The bars now feel at the right height and my manuals were much better today I manualled the first double every time except once out of over 20 tries and did a couple of tap manuals as well. I also managed to manual the second double a few times as well with one of the tries getting the back wheel to hit the down ramp.

I also jumped the tabletop cleanly landing nose first which I haven't done for a while.

I am really liking the bike setup now and can't wait to take the bike to Bristol track tomorrow to test it out there doing some full laps.

This afternoon I did Pilates as well and my core is getting much better.

I am going to take my 20" apart tonight in my break ready to take the bits to Cruical in the morning to get the Cruiser built up.

My arm has been really hurting since I cased one of the manuals on the first straight today and tonight I have had to take some neurofen to work as my wrist and arm are hurting so much. Hopefully this will stop by the morning but I will see.

Full laps

Went to the bath track and did 6 full laps with 5 minutes rest in between followed by 5 full speed first straights. Was really tired so I went home and cleaned my bike.

I also changed the forks and crupi stem ready to take the S&M to Crucial to be built up.

The bars are now lower and feel better when sprinting. I will know more after I go to the track tomorrow morning.

Here are a couple of photos of the bike setup now.

I also got the fastest lap time on the track this year at 33 seconds according to strava so pretty pleased at how the training is going.

I am planning to take the S&M and all of the bits to Crucial to be built up for me to pick up at the weekend if possible so that I can use the S&M on Monday morning to ride to work on. I am going to get a 38 x 16 get gearing to be harder than the Haro to do a bit of resistance training while using the S&M.

Rest Day

Had a rest day today as I was feeling a but sore after the weekends exertion and I also had lots of stuff to do. I had to post some forks that I sold at the weekend and also build up my son's old Junior bike with the wheels that arrived last week that I picked up yesterday evening.

This afternoon I updated my weight chart with the last couple of weigh ins and shared it so it is accessible to view from the internet.

Weigh-in Chart 2017

All in all this year I have lost 3.85 kgs without really changing my diet apart from drinking more water and not drinking fizzy drinks. I have also been riding my bike as often as possible. I plan to keep going and want to get my weight down to 80 kgs by the end of the year if possible. More impressive than the weight loss is the way my body is transforming I have lost over 2 inches on my waist in the last 3 month going from a tight 38 inch waist to about a 35 inch waist where my new 36 inch waist jeans are starting to fall down as are my 36 inch waist racing shorts. I also need to buy more compression tights this month as the 2 pairs of XL tights that I have are too loose now so all in all really happy with progress.

Weigh in

Happy with my weight in today 99.30 kgs. I wasn't expecting much weight loss as I have been training a lot this week and my legs have got much more muscular and defined so I thought I would be over 100 kgs again.

I am having a rest day today as I am really tired and as it is mother's day I have a lot planned.

Yesterday I took my son to gates at the parkfield track in Torbay where we will have the second regional race on 9th April. I am really glad we went as I got the gate and the first straight dialled I can manual the first and second at full speed so hopefully I can do well. I also got some help getting out of the gate fast as the gate is really quick and you have to be basically standing upright which is really different to all the gates that I have ridden until now.

I also know that I need to get to doing full laps at Bristol more as the track is really long so I need to build up some endurance to go along with the speed.

I am going to get up early tomorrow morning and do to Bristol again and do at least 6 full laps before I go home.

Tuesday I will try and do 400m sprints followed by manual training and then go from there.

Change of plans

Had a change of plans this morning is I am a bit short on cash this week I decided not to go to Tiverton this morning as I need to save petrol to go to Torquay tomorrow morning. I am off to Bristol in a as planned but I will go a bit earlier to get some full laps in before my friend arrives.

Here is a video of my training today. I am really pleased as I am now jumping the second double at full race speed.

I have put my son's old bike and my Thrill Cruiser frame and some Box forks on ebay to sell and I will swap out the cranks on my Dialled 20" and put it on ebay as well this afternoon to get it up for sale as well. Hopefully I can sell some of it to get some cash coming in and not always going out!!!!

I now have my Yess frame and some cliq 20mm forks and an almost new front wheel with 20mm hub to sell as well which I think I will bundle together and get on ebay to sell as well.

I am going to build up the S&M Speedwagon up as my spare bike for a while as the guy who wants to buy the frame wants to wait a while to buy it as he is strapped for cash at the moment too.

I am now saving for a Yess Type X cruiser frame and Yess aluminium forks and box maximus bars and a delta stem to go with the bars which I can hopefully save the money for before the Brits on 26th August so let see if I can do it or not.

I have changed my mind again! I have just taken a look at the Yess 20" frame and I am going to build it up for me to ride with some of the parts from the Dialled 20" instead of building up the S&M. Next month I will buy some new bits like seat and back wheel so that I can build up the Dialled and sell it as a complete next month. Once this is built up I will then save for a new Cruiser frame 😃😃

I think I need to seek help on my bike buying addiction too 😃

Making the most of my holiday

I have been making the most of my holiday even the the weather has been really bad this week (and typically next week is going to be good!!!).

I went to bath track and did some first straights to work on my manuals until the clicking noise started to get too much so I went home and got showered and changed and took the bike to be fixed in Crucial. I had to help my Dad do some concreting in the afternoon so that was all I did on Tuesday.

Yesterday I had another busy day I got up at 6 and went to Bristol Track but is was really water logged so I decided to try and jump the second double on the first straight as I  have been wanting to try and jump it for a while but I haven't had a chance to get to the track outside of racing to do it. It didn't go too well although I didn't crash and I did a couple where I didn't totally case but I need to work on my jumping skills I think. On a positive note my manual's are getting much better.

Here is a video of my training:

After training I had to rush home get showered and pick up my parents from Frome as they were coming to Bath to pick up their new car. After I dropped them off at the dealership I had to rush home and get ready for Pilates then in the evening I had a basketball match which I played really badly in! I need to spend a little less time on the bike and a little more time playing basketball I think!

It is pissing it down again today so I am going to do some stuff at home and then at lunch time I need to go to Crucial and pick up my Cruiser which has been fixed. It had to have a new headset as the bearings had gone in the one that was on the bike.

After riding yesterday I have decided that I am going to sell the 20" and build up a spare cruiser as the 20" is too different to the cruiser. I am going to strip the cranks, bottom bracket, brakes, grips, bars and seat off of the 20" and use the cranks, brakes and grips to build up my thrill frame that I got fixed last week. I picked some bombshell wheels up on Sunday from a friend who had upgraded his wheels a couple of weeks ago so once the bars arrive hopefully today I will be able to build up the spare cruiser tonight to see how it runs. I want to use the thrill as my training bike to ride to work and also use when I am training and keep the Haro as my gates and race bike to stop it getting too wrecked.

I am taking today as a rest day as I have a busy week end planned. Tomorrow I am going to get up early again and go to Tiverton in the morning and then meet up with a friend at Bristol at lunch time. Saturday we are planning to go to Torquay track for gates to get some practice in before the regional in a couple of weekends time (9th April) as I have never ridden the track and as I wasn't able to race the first race I need to do well in this race to get some points. On a positive note I easily beat the guy in 3rd place in my age group but the 2 guys ahead of him are really quick riders so I will need to be rinding at my best to have any kind of chance of beating them.

Late weigh in

Forgot to weigh myself yesterday as I was too busy getting ready for racing. I weighed myself this morning when I got up and I have just sneaked over 100 kgs again at 100.80 kgs.

I am not too worried about it as I have a busy week planned as I am on holiday this week and I am going to get some training in a a few different tracks this week.

I went really well racing yesterday even though I was feeling horrible again with a sore throat and fever again. Still I managed to win all 3 motos taking it easy and also the final so not too bad. I noticed that I am getting fitter as I did not get jelly legs at all this week which is a big improvement. I did break something on my bike as there is a clunking noise when I peddle and something seems loose when I drop the back wheel on the floor.

I picked up another set of bombshell wheels yesterday which I am going to use to build up the thrill frame that I got fixed last week as my training bike and then I will leave my Haro Blackout in the shop to get it fixed.

I am just missing handle bars, a brake, grips and a seat to finish off the bike. I am going to take the cranks, brake and seat off of my 20" for now and then next month build up the 20" again.

I think that I will run 42 x 18 on the training cruiser as it is slightly higher than the 37 x 16 that I am running on my race bike so it will provide a bit of extra resistance. Also I already have a 42 tooth Renthal chain ring lying about so I don't have to buy another chain ring.

I am debating at the moment whether I keep the 20" for training or if I sell it and concentrate on the cruiser as I don't think I will be able to keep both.

I am having a day off today as it is really wet and I am not feeling 100% still. Also I have Pilates at 1pm and have to take my son to his parkor class at 17:40 so there isn't any time to do anything today.

Tomorrow I plan to get up early and go to the Tiverton track for the morning and then pop into Bristol track on the way back as one of my friends has the afternoon off and said he wanted to meet up and ride.

Tomorrow night there are gates at Burnham which I may go to if I feel up to it. Wednesday I have Pilates again and also basketball so I will probably get up early and go to Bristol track again and get some full laps in so that I have time to get back for Pilates at 1pm.

I have just come across some gusset mxr cruiser bars on Facebook so I have bought those as they were only £10 so will do for a few months. I am going to change my stem now from the eleven stem to the crupi front load stem as my bars are still a little high on the Haro as the bars are bruiser bars which are 6.5 inch rise bars not the usual 5 inch rise. I am going to use the eleven stem on the training bike with the new bars when they arrive.

Here is a picture of the new bars. Once I have cleaned the Haro and swapped the stem over I will as a new photo of it as well.

Windy day

Another wind assisted first straight training day today. I am getting much better on the first jump but still pretty sketchy on the second.

I did about 20 first straights today before I got too tired.

More training done

Got up late this morning so I decided to wait until after 12pm to go to the track so that I could have breakfast today. I had peanut butter on toast and water. I felt much better than I did yesterday without any food.

When I got to the track I did a pump lap followed by a full lap peddling the whole lap and then 4 full speed laps followed by a couple of first straights then I had to come home as I had a delivery to pick up. My legs felt OK but a bit heavy and I am feeling really bad now.

Back to training

Just woke up and I had a weigh in and I am back over 100 kgs at 100.15 kgs so I think I am back on form so it is time to get back on the bike.

I am went to Bath track and did some 1st and 2nd straights but after about 10 I went dizzy so I stopped and went home so not 100% successful but I will build on it tomorrow.

My first test of my moov wasn't too successful either as the device kept dropping the signal. Tomorrow I will try putting the phone and the moov on the same side of my body as today they were on either side. I also didn't like the moov software as it kept trying to coach which is not what I want or need.

Feeling Better

Finally starting to get better although I am still really weak so I am going to take today and probably tomorrow as rest days then start back training Wednesday once I have got some nutrients back in my body and I am feeling better as I was only able to keep food down last night and that was only tinned chicken soup so not much goodness there.

I have just uploaded a video I took of a guy on a mountain bike jumping off of the back of the first berm at Bath Track last Tuesday night as I haven't been up to upload it before.

I have linked it below.

Still rough

I am still rough after 3 days of stomach flu so no racing for me today! I haven't really eaten for 3 days either so I am feeling really weak so decided that a 3 hour round trip to race today wasn't a good idea. I stated taking medicine yesterday for diahreea but until now it hasn't really worked too well however I have also been drinking boiled water a an electrolyte solution that has made me feel tons better as I am no longer dehydrated.

I did a weigh in and my weight has dropped dramatically to 98.10 kgs so not all bad. I have actually lost 3.25 kgs in 4 days!!

I have been talking to my brother and he has been doing the 8 hour diet for about a month and has dropped over 5kgs and is feeling really good. The diet is basically fasting for 16 hours a day and only eathing during an 8 hour window. I have been looking up about it on line and it looks good and means that you can eat whatever you want during the 8 hours and still loose weight. I am going to dry this for the next month or so to see how I get on. It will also fit in with the lime water in the morning and drinking loads of water throughout the day that I have been doing all year so far which is good.

Below is a link about the diet:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/740841/8-hour-diet-lets-you-cheat-and-still-lose-up-to-10lb-in-a-week/

Ill again

Woke up yesterday feeling rough with a bloated stomach and sore throat. My legs were also really sort from all the training I have been doing so I took the mountain bike to work instead of the bmx to make sure that I took it easy.

At lunch I rode back across town and did Pilates where I felt OK but my stomach was feeling strange. When I got home from work I had to rush to the toilet and then go to bed as I was feeling feverish. I slept for an hour and then got ready and went to basketball.

I have noticed that my fitness level has improved greatly in the last month or so since I last played and I am now able to run up and down the court much better than before. I was able to play an entire quarter without feeling too bad and I have no aches in the legs at all which is really unheard of. This shows that my training is paying off even if I haven't lost a great deal of weight I am definately getting fitter by the week.

I am going to rest for the next couple of days to get ready for the weekend and the first race of the season.

My new number plate arrived this morning and I have just put my ranking number for the year on it.

Here is a photo:

Here is a picture of my training bike with the extra long seat post on it:

As I am in bed sick today I created a spreadsheet of my weight loss this year and I have published a graph on the following link;

Weight Loss 2017

As you can see from the chart I have lost 1.8 kgs this year which is not too bad and is more or less on my goal of loosing 1kg a month.

I have also done a re-evalution of my goals for this year.

I am on track with the not drinking fizzy drinks. I have not had any this year at all. I have also been drinking lime water every morning before breakfast and also drinking 3 litres of water a day.

I haven't been eating much fruit and this is my next goal to focus on along with stopping eating crisps and chocolate as my consumption of both has increased this year as a result of cutting out fizzy drinks.

I think that I over estimated my fitness levels when setting my fitness goals and it has become apparent that I am not fit enough to do sprints more than twice a week at the moment and I have not done any HIIT training yet either partly as a result of my colar bone not allowing me to do press ups yet.

I also gave up on the manul challenge although I am heavily practicing manuals everytime I am at the track and my manuals have improved a lot over the past few months.

So for the next few months I am going to focus on doing 2 quality sprint sessions a week plus the usual track work that I have been doing and the one session of Pilates a week.

I need to focus a bit more on flexability as well so I want to start stretching everyday for the next month starting next week to see if this helps.

I am also going to start playing basketball on Sunday's for a couple of hours so this will help greatly with my fitness as well.

Sprints sort of done

I sort of did my sprints this morning. I couldn't do the 400m sprint as I didn't have the legs I made about 100m for the first sprint then did maybe 50m for the second and then did a third sprint of around 50m downhill to finish.

I will do this for the rest of the week as it is better than nothing and then build up over the weeks to work up to the 400m sprints.

Next week I am going to use the cycle track for the sprints so I will try and increase the distance as well.

Finished off the day with a quick session at the track for an hour to get some of the stiffness out of the legs from the sprints. Did maybe 10 3rd and 4th straights and Dylan practised cornering and jumping the small tabletop on the 4th straight and to finish the session off a guy on a mountain bike jumped off of the first berm over the fence.

No sprints

Didn't do sprints this morning as my legs were really sore after the weekend. I did ride to work on the 20" with the recovery post on it and I must say it made the ride much better than having to stand up and peddle all of the way.

I am resting up tonight and then I will try and see how far I can sprint tomorrow morning although I have a feeling that I will not be able to make the full 400m this week as it is a really long way!

Weigh in

I have just weighed in and I am down to 101.35 kgs which is great considering I have been eating loads of rubbish for the last couple of day.

Didn't have time to go to Bristol again today so we went to Bath but it was too windy so we did a couple of first straights and then gave up and went home.

As I had some time on my hands I washed all of the bikes instead.

Long post Bought

Had a rest day today so I went to Crucial BMX in Bristol and bought the new numbers for myself and Dylan to use this year and also my long seat post.

I went with the RAD Railed seat post which has a 27.2mm diameter and is 600mm long.

Here it is on the Crucial site:

http://www.crucialbmxshop.com/rad-recovery-railed-seat-post.html

As you can see from the photo below it is pretty long (inhaler for scale):

I haven't been able to use it yet as my spare railed mountain bike seat is currently at my parents house so I will have to pick it up at the weekend ready to use on Monday morning for my 400m sprints on my way to work.

Best training ever

Had my best training session ever today even though I have a stomach bug and am feeling sick and got a headache.

Did first straights again today with sprints back up the start hill. I did probably 30 straights and cased only one or two first jumps and maybe 5 second jumps so much better than ever before.

I also did a few tap manuals on the first jump and one on the second as well.

I also got onto the balance point a few times which meant perfect manuals after the first one where I popped my pants and got on the break! Still manualled the second even doing this 😀

Typically my camera is out of action so I wasn't able to film any of the session!!!!!

I am going to take the cruiser tomorrow and see how I do with it as I am loving the 20" at the moment. I am seriously thinking about doubling up this season in 20" and Cruiser to see how it goes. I may leave the 20" until the second race to make sure I get through it as I have never raced further than the first jump at the Exeter track. It is the track where I broke my collar bone and ribs last year so I am a bit apprehensive about racing there. Especially as it is the first race of the year! I will keep thinking about it from now until then. I am definitely going to register so that I can double up if I feel like it later in the season.

I am getting annoyed with my camera as the batter just will not hold a charge which is really annoying as I need to film my training if I want to iron out the bugs in my technique. To be honest the camera was only £30 last year so I should really get a proper go pro and a few batteries to use with it.

I am going to go to Crucial in the morning to get a long seat post ready to start 400m sprints on my way to work in the morning. I have been on Google maps as I have 2 places where I can do 400m sprints with enough time in between to rest for the next one. It is not ideal but is better than nothing and means I will be doing 10 sprints a week which isn't bad. And now it is getting darker later I can get to the track at night to do an hour's first straight sprint and manual practice too.

Quiet Day

Had to have a quiet day today as I finished work at 4:30am last night so I slept most of the morning then did Pilates at 1pm and then slept again until 5pm when I had to work again.

Didn't get a chance to ride my bike at all today.