It's been an interesting year...I started the year as a climber again and I've finished the year as a bike racer. The conversion was gradual but the effect is quite far reaching. Not only have I changed pastimes but according to my friend Steve Yeoman I've also changed shape!
I quote "Taylor, you've changed! What's happened to your arms? They've gone!"
I hadn't really noticed as I guess it's happened slowly but he's right the biceps and shoulders have all but disappeared. I had to check whether I could still actually do a pull-up - it's alright folks I've still got a couple in me! (My all time record was 8, so that's not a disaster!)
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| This was probably the last time I touched rock.....sometime in September! |
1. About a million more Facebook messages/tweets/forms to fill in etc.... where do they all come from?!
2. I've definitely been more serious about how much riding I am doing over the last couple of months.
Where last year I was content to go out when it was sunny and maybe go on the turbo trainer occasionally (to be honest I spent quite a lot of time climbing), I can honestly say I didn't do a great deal of riding in November/December.
I have been keeping a diary of my riding for about the last year (anyone who knows of my climbing logbook geekery will see this as no surprise!), it was actually Andy's idea and I'm now really glad I've done it. Aside from the world of strava and garmin connect it has given me a whole bunch of information about what I've done and how I've felt about it. Simply looking at mileage alone over the course of each month has shown me that December 2012 was a bigger month than June 2012 (and that's not counting turbo miles!). I'm hoping that putting a bit of work in now is going to stand me in good stead for next season. I look back on how much I improved between April and September and that was without having been training over the winter months.....surely 2013 can only be better??
So, 2013, what am I expecting? Looking forward too? Well, I'm off to the Costa Blanca on 7th Jan. After I don't know how many trips out climbing and working over the last 15 years, I'm actually taking my bike and no rock shoes! A little training camp for 6 days. It's a special deal for the Biketreks teams, so I'll be riding out with some of the Under 23/Youth lads ....... yeah OK I'll be setting off with them and then hoping they leave a trail of breadcrumbs or something so that I know which way they've gone! So I'll report back when I've survived! We are going here http://www.cyclingholidayspain.co.uk/
Fingers crossed for some sunshine.
Finally a few words about something different:
For the last week there has been a Strava/Rapha Festive 500 challenge been going on - people registered and then logged their rides to try and get in 500km between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Now sounds like a pretty good challenge for anyone but a friend of mine decided he was going to give it a go despite the fact that he's currently battling cancer. There has been a great team of people who have been out with him on some or all of the rides, I've only made it along on a couple of days. But I'm inspired by Chris's fighting spirit, he had a full day of Chemotherapy infusion on Saturday which unfortunately finished his chances as he's been feeling pretty rough since then - I can't believe how well he's done and if anyone would like to support him he's set up a just giving page in aid of Beechwood - check it out here and his blog here
Keep fighting Chris!
