I intend get my weight down, increase upper body strength for xmas and a weeks surfing down the Gower so the following regime has been adopted –

Gym and swim 3 times a week.
Spinning once a week, had started to do it twice a week but the rest of the body wasn’t getting as much of a workout.
Ride on the hills at the weekend for a blast!!

I’m getting a fitness test this afternoon, so I’ll be able to compare the results against the test done earlier ths year in February. This will then form the major input into my winter training.

Although I already know I want to throw in one strength session this winter.

samuri – why on earth do you do 100 situps a day?

Have you not seen his abs?

😉 To maintain my awesome abs

That’s just a side effect though. I used to get lots of back pain when riding, it just got worse and worse. 20 miles on a mountain bike would do it.

Then I started doing situps, lots of them. At once stage I was doing 400 at a time, every other day. It made a huge difference. No back pain at all now.

Thing is, it takes so long to do that many situps, so I cut back to 100 a day. I don’t always do them. But most days is my plan.

and defend my Bristol Rollapaluza champion title

I know a few who will say that was lost due to slipped seatpost. 😉

re: swimming

FWIW I bought and read the TI book and did little else other than practicing a bit of gliding whilst taking the children swimming. I’ve always just swum backstroke/breaststroke as I could manage these at a rate like my overall fitness (not the fastest, not the slowest).

Finally got into the pool by myself yesterday lunchtime, and there was a noticeable difference – just the whole ethos of relaxing, concentrating on balance etc. seemed better. Struggle to manage 50M normally without going into oxyen deprivation and sinking, but I was doing back to back lengths and not struggling anywhere near as much. So it’s worth a look.

IMO the ‘easy freestyle’ TI techniques might be focused too much on gliding.

You’re maybe right for someone who wants/needs to be competitive, but for aqua-retards such as myself I think it’s a decent option. I was still quicker than my breaststroke lengths but with a similar effort level.

Not knocking it brassneck – it’s brought my swimming on a long way… can swim the 20m pool with just 4 breast strokes because of it.

Thanks for the swim tips. It’s good to hear about reformed aqua-retards.

I’ve ordered the TI book as it’s less than £6 delivered from Amazon and it’d be daft not to give it a bash first.

And…. blow bubbles!

I know a few who will say that was lost due to slipped seatpost.

<trumpet blowing>Pah.. I was way faster than him through the rounds</trumpet blowing>

Eh?? don’t remember that at all. I thought i’d timed it wrong in the final as I only really turned on the gas at 500m.

I did get trounced in the final by a welsh guy in august (although he is the 2nd fastest in the UK)

Only goal I have is minimum 600 miles a month until new year.

As 2012 is year 2 of entering events for me;

a)I’d like to complete the 10k run in March that I entered sub 50 mins
b) I’d like to be top 3 in one of the 3 50k Southern trails rides I entered last year (came 8, 5, 4 in 2011)
c) I’d like a sub 50min (dry) NIGHT lap at SITS 2012 or its wet equivelent
d) I’d like to do the on one hundred again if there is one for 2012 and finish in the top 90 (120th or so this year)
e) Compete in my first ever road sportive
f) Complete my first road 100k

All of which means maintaining my fitness/weight til Jan by riding 3 x per week, then ramping up the intensity some thereafter (increasing volume will be tricky!)

Get back to 11st. Sneak under 1h30 for half marathon. Get back to the front of the mid-pack in fell races, rather than mid-mid-pack. Defend 13th best Vet title in Cheshire cross-country. Do a couple more cx races. Improve 1K swim time. Start climbing again. Find some spare time. Finish with a grin on my face.

My main goal for winter was fitness. Unfortunately i’m going to be spending a lot of time on the turbo I think.

My actual goal for next year was based around the Megavalanche, qualifying well & finishing ‘somewhere’ in the top 50 overall, preferably at the sharper end.

Last winter and spring is the first time ever i’ve done any sort of fitness training as an adult, so it’s been a fairly steep learning curve. This year I have a bit more of an idea what to expect.

3 things for me, and quite generic:

*Rebuild my base fitness which was all lost when I got off the bike in Feb and back on in September.
*Start some running.
*Develop and stick to a simple core strength training plan.

1 specific thing:

*continue losing weight – another 1.5 st ideally.

I tried my hand at road racing 18 months ago, and wasn’t fit enough (plus suffered from bad riding technique). I’m determined to give it another go – sole ambition is to finish a 3/4 race in the bunch.

Get back my running fitness after a calf injury – I think I’ve still got it but been off a month now.

Build up my upper body strength to tick off some long awaited rock climbs after a 10 year sabatical

Just keep plugging on with the 200-300 mile weeks, play a lot of badminton, let my wrist get better, not have any more injuries, maybe put on a bit of weight to keep myself warm over the colder months.