Lose weight fast!

This week had taught me that I understand absolutely nothing about endurance training. After Tuesday's big workout that removed at least a kilo of fat from my body I was feeling seriously "abused" and thought that recovery would be difficult. Only one full rest day for recovery and then I went out and equalled my own record on a 50 minute hill climb and had the best "sensations" that I've felt all year! Not only that but I'd raced on the Ventoux just two days before that big workout. The previous week when I'd trained less hard I was completely tired out. I really don't get it.

One thing I do get though is how to lose weight fast. One day's really hard workout with about 5000m climbing (16,400ft) and a complete kilo of fat has gone. No mystery to that. Apparently one pound of fat yields 3500 calories so when you do a workout that burns over 10,000 calories then the fat is going to fall off fast. I'll aim for one workout at this level per week now until my weight is reasonable - which for my height is 67kg - but for a pro cyclist would be a shocking 58kg !!!! The scary thing about this information is that only 3500 calories will put on a pound of fat - that's only a couple of kebabs!

Received a new telephone yesterday which I'm hoping will replace the Garmin GPS eventually. It will take a week until the SIM card is active but I tested out the GPS yesterday with the Endomondo app and it was very impressive. This is definitely the way to go. One lightweight device for communication, GPS navigation/tracking, HR, cadence, Power sensor logging, music/radio, camera/video - all simultaneously - and it works! Even more impressive it updates in real time on the internet - so anyone watching at home can see where you are in a race etc. This is obviously the way things will move in the future and even though the apps are a bit primitive just now they will develop rapidly. The telephone is the Sony Xperia Arc, but most of the recent Sony smartphones have ANT+ technology in them - some of the older phones only need a firmware update to activate the chip. I'm not impressed however by the camera technology, but it's reasonable for snapshots - better than any other phone camera I've seen yet, but that's not saying much.

This is  a sample Xperia Arc photo taken during a thunder and lightning storm that cut the workout a bit shorter than planned. I was unable to capture the menacing darkness of the clouds and rain and the detail of the village in the foreground is poor despite the original image being a supposed 8 mega-pixels.

No more cycling now until this weekend's 168km race over the Vercors mountain range. This is going to be a tough one and I can't see myself "competing" over that distance at the moment. It is more likely to make a good training session than a "race". Saying that - if anyone thinks that "cyclosportives" are not really racing then it's interesting to notice that doping tests are now taking place for winners and other targeted individuals. I intend to have a couple of "barefoot runs" in the two days leading up to the race instead of cycling. This should especially give my bum and back a bit of a rest from the strain of sitting on a saddle all day. Last week was the first time ever that I'd managed to run barefoot on two consecutive days without any calve pains at all - plus the times are now at between 20 and 25 minutes per run instead of 12 to 15  - so the adaptation is finally starting to take place. It just feels great running this way.

Just found out from a magazine article that numb fingers/hands on the bike is caused by pressure on a nerve in the wrist. Yesterday on the bike I deliberately changed the grip so that the wrist wasn't "kinked" and sure enough there was no numbness. That's useful to know because my left hand has being going numb regularly and although it recovers quickly when swung around in circles it wasn't clear what caused it in the first place - I'd thought it was due to the shoulder or upper back but it was is fact more direct.