Off Season Training

To make a much repeated observation around these parts – it’s cold, and with many layers of snow. On Monday morning it reached – 17 degrees in Oxford. After spending a week off the bike, apart from one short perfunctory training session on the turbo, I felt slightly concerned about my lack of training. In a fit of off season enthusiasm, I turned off  the ventral heating and ran up and down my stairs a few times. I then tried some very energetic situps. The training session lasted all of about 15 minutes, but at least gave me a feeling of having made an effort.

Rather embarrassingly, the 20 situps seemed to give me back ache for the next four days, showing how little upper body strength I have. But, at least, with the back ache, I now had a good excuse not to make an effort with turbo or training on icey roads.

This has been one of the worst December’s on record. But, am glad to say the bike still comes out pretty well in the snow.

On Saturday morning, it snowed very heavily – about a foot. I was still able to cycle back from town on a mountain bike. It was hard going in that depth of snow, but, I could make it. Unfortunately, the city centre became a log jam of gridlocked cars. I heard even Jeremy Clarkson, of Top Gear fame, had to abandon his car.

The only downside to cycling in the snow is so many car drivers lost their Christmas spirit. Snow effectively narrows a road, and car drivers just pass you much closer or, as in two cases, shout at you forbeing on the road; perhaps they had been stuck in the logjam and got jealous of a bike making quicker progress.

Anyway, I’m hoping the snow will melt. In the meantime, my training will consist of about 5 situps per day, and running up escalators in shopping malls.