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Saturday 7 February 2009

Snow, chaos, dodgy statistics...and a bit of training


This was the week the media went into overdrive, local councils ran out of salt for the roads, and I didn't get out on my bike once. Well, at least not on the road. So, here's a quick snap out of the back window of my house in Bedfordshire yesterday. It snowed steadily, but not particularly heavily, from about 5am to lunchtime.
Now, this has been the pattern all week - certainly enough snow to make me think twice about venturing out on a bike (but only a few inches in a snowfall). But it's turned out to be enough to raise media hysteria across the UK, for buses o stop running, for roads to be closed and for my workplace to close early (at noon yesterday for example).
In the meantime, here's a link to an article debunking some statistics generated on behalf of an insurance company. The best think about this survey is it compares 6 months of accident data with the preceding 6 months, apparently without it ever occurring to them that there might be seasonal issues (dark, cold, ice etc)!
And so...how's the training gone?
Well, I've been busy, so only a short level 2 session, and two "progressive power" sessions at race pace, all on the turbo in my cold garage. I ended up walking to work on Thursday (6 miles, and fortunately got a lift home) so couldn't be bothered getting on the turbo that day. I suppose "ticking over" is the best I could describe it as.
Finally, it's time to post an entry form for the Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up '25' over to "Grumpy" Art Vanderlay. The event's on 1st March, so time is getting a bit tight there. We've had no post for a few days, so perhaps some creative use of internet technology will be needed.

2 comments:

Art Vanderlay said...

Very pretty, but where did all those roofs come from? I can't recall that many outbuildings or is it just the extensions at the rear of the house?

We had snow here - on Tuesday - but nothing realy since. It's raining now, so the little bits of snow that are left are likely to be washed away. I don't go out on the road in this muck though, so it's been the turbo for me too.

My mileage (real and turbo-equivalent) has been shockingly low with a weekly average of about 70. But it is all quality stuff - I just don't have time for easy miles anymore. My hope is that i've hit upon some hitherto unknown training utopia where I maximise my fitness by doing just hard stuff and then getting complete rest in between.

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Grumpy Bob said...

The photo was taken from our upstairs bedroom window, looking out over the roof of our house and those of two of our neighbours...

Froze hard last night, and it'll do it again (but colder) tonight.

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