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Monday 25 January 2010

Grumpy Art: Le Tour et Moi (Caption Competition)

At a recent off-season social do, "Grumpy" Art Vanderlay had the opportunity to meet Jean-Marie Leblanc. It transpires that M. Leblanc, in addition to being a rather sharp impressionist, has a taste for ale. Apparently the club presented him with a tankard but no ale, so "Grumpy" Art took it upon himself to remedy this, with a sample of Old Speckled Hen.

Here in the Team Grumpy nerve centre it is thought that this photograph merits a caption. Team Grumpy have decided therefore to call a "Caption Competition", but one with no actual prize beyond glory. Or something.

Contribute captions via the commenting system please!

Sunday 17 January 2010

How do you know when you are getting old and fat?

I think I have the answer following last night's farce.

I had to get up in the night to go to the loo (isn't that what happens when you get old?). When I got back into bed, the poxy bed broke with one hell of a crack.

Stupid ageing. Why can't some scientist do something about it?

Friday 15 January 2010

Team Grumpy official energy drink: crisis looms

Sky News are reporting that Belgium is currently gripped by a developing beer crisis, due to strike action (Blockage Of Anheuser-Busch InBev Breweries In Belgium Leads To Shortage Of Stella Beer Lager | Business | Sky News).  On the face of it, this isn't of huge consequence.  Except that the official team energy drink of Team Grumpy is Leffe, one of the brands owned by InBev, and, indeed, named in the news reports of this appalling crisis.

At this time of the year, when the Team Grumpy "athletes" are in full winter turbo training mode, it is to be hoped that the team management take immediate and prompt action to secure adequate energy drink supplies in the lead up to the first 2-up of the 2010 "Team Grumpy Centenary" season - specifically the Port Talbot Wheelers '25' in March.


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Saturday 9 January 2010

Icy turbo misery

Misery on the turbo is when you go out to the garage for a spot of training on the turbo, only to find the window is glazed on the inside with a sheet of ice from the condensed sweat of yesterday's turbo session...

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Friday 8 January 2010

teamgrumpy.com

Some months ago, Grumpy Bob coughed up for the domain teamgrumpy.com, to use as an alias for the "official" Team Grumpy website. Annoyingly, this site was pointing at a jpg image of racing cars.

About two months ago, Grumpy Bob took this up with his hosting company, who didn't offer a great deal of advice (at least at a level that Grumpy Bob could actually comprehend), and effectively passed the buck. Yesterday, fired with the success in getting a domain to point at a server in his house (e.g. this mirror of the Northwood Wheelers website), he raised the issue once more, and whoever was dealing with the support ticket on this occasion resolved the issue in a matter of hours.

Success!

Now, go and visit the Team Grumpy website!

Thursday 7 January 2010

Aaaargh!

That's how I felt at the end of today's turbo session:

10 mins warm up
10 x 4 min @ c. 350W/L3-4 with 1 min recovery intervals
10 mins warm down

I now need to lie down for the rest of the day

Wednesday 6 January 2010

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.

Friday 1 January 2010

Grumpy Bob survives the New Year '10'

A low turn out of five riders for this year's North Bucks New Year '10', ridden on a gloriously sunny but very cold morning on the F5d/10.  Reports at the NBRC and Flies&Bikes websites.

Grumpy Bob is pleased on two counts - he felt his performance was good (particularly compared with last year's 25:22), and he enjoyed giving his new TT bike a thorough testing.  He likes it, though it seems more twitchy at low speed - fine while racing.

He still felt overweight and bulbous...


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