Going nowhere

Only 33 miles on the Brompton this week and zero miles on a road bike. My mileage has been going down each week and the dieting isn't going too well either.  I need a training plan.



I bought a turbo trainer in 2008 to help me train for the Etape du Tour and I blew the cobwebs off it today.  There is nothing more boring than training in the garage, but with several inches of snow on the ground and freezing temperatures it was either that or mountain biking and the CycleOps was easier to get to in my cluttered garage.

My training routine is pretty basic; I warm up at a high cadence in an easy gear, go through a series of intervals, cool down with a fast spin on an easy gear and then finish with some stretching. I use my Garmin with the chest strap to monitor my heartrate and cadence. 

I realise there are some great looking screen-based training programmes and videos like the Sufferfest available but they are useless for me as I am short sighted and my glasses get steamed up and covered in sweat so I generally take them off. I'd need a 40" plasma screen in the garage just to see what I was supposed to be following.  Instead, I resort to listening to my iPod to help make the time pass.

I used my Wilier Izoard on the turbo today after swapping to an old (Schwalbe Ultremo) tyre on the rear wheel.  Whilst re-fitting the wheel I noticed that the bike's cable outers are beginning to crack.  They are Shimano Dura-Ace and I guess about 3 years old.  I will probably replace them with the Jagwire Racer cables but I can't decide on what colour outers to go for.  Changing the brake cables will also require fitting new handlebar tape and maybe I'll use it as an opportunity to try something other than Fizik.