Work-life balance (a.k.a. "Aaargh!")

Regular readers of this blog (if there are such unwise creatures out there) may recall that Grumpy Bob made a serious attempt at addressing his work-life balance towards the end of 2009. This principally consisted of leaving for work somewhat later than he has done for most of his working career, and using the time freed up to indulge in turbo training, and when the day length increases, morning road rides (assuming the weather will finally have moderated by then).

Of late, even this strategy has come under pressure. Not only was Grumpy Bob prevented from effective training by a lengthy cold, the prospect of traipsing out to the garage at 6am in significantly sub-zero temperatures has not been, shall we say, received entirely enthusiastically.

Nonetheless, he has in general persisted. It is possible that the new interest in power training (Power-Based Training, part 1) has generated a revival of interest in turbo training, for which there's not been much alternative, since the council appears to be precious near with the salt (and indeed never treat any of the minor roads around here).

As a minor aside, the analysis GrumpyBob has been doing on his turbo sessions leads him to believe that his interval training (particularly the Black Book's "Progressive Power" sessions) which are based upon heart rate level are, in power terms, spot on for endurabce training. Well, that's what the current interpretation leads him to. Expect part 2 of the Power-Based Training article some time over the next few weeks.

Anyway, as is often the case, Grumpy Bob trailed out to the garage at 6am this morning for a Level 2 turbo session (here Level 2 is referring to heart rate level 2). The snow lay crisp, fairly deep, and pretty damned even. But the garage wasn't too bad, especially with a fan heater running. The big disappointment was another garage puncture after about 45 minutes. Grumpy Bob needs to keep another "Puncture Bob" scoresheet in 2010 - it certainly seems as though most of his punctures occur in the garage, either while turbo training, or deflations resulting from slow punctures incurred on the road.

Ho hum, business as usual.