Ice Age II

With the leisure centre gyms closed for the holiday and the weather resembling Siberia, The Ironman has lent the Bigman his Turbo Trainer to get in some 'miles'.

And so it was off out to the garage in minus 3 temperature to burn some rubber. with the turbo set to maximum resistance Bigman was struggling to get his heart rate above 80 bpm and there was no chance of getting warm. With full winter gear including the gloves, he survived fifty minutes only interrupted by the chill giving need for nature to take its course.

Brief consideration was given to doing a 'Paula Radcliffe' however this was quickly dispensed as a bad idea.

Tomorrow the leisure centres are back open and the plan is to spend the afternoon completing a lungbusting, heart booming, gutwrenching session in Cowdenbeath.

With less than 70 available days of training, every one is going to count towards making sure the Cape Epic experience is one we will want to remember as opposed to one we will want to forget.

The difference will be made in the dark days ahead.

A visit to the doc last week to obtain a medical sign off was another step closer to the start for Bigman. The purchase of his bike 'suitcase' yesterday is one more thing ticked off the list of things to do.

It is planned to have a joint celebration of Bigman hitting the BIG five oh and a Cape Epic send off similar to the Tartan Army send off to the 78 world cup. This year, Posse Ecosse is as close as Scotland get to being represented in South Africa for an international challenge.

Details of the event which will be a fund raising event for our chosen charity - Aberlour Child Care Trust will be announced soon.

Wonder how they trained in the ice age.....

Well 11 weeks to go to the start of the race and the weather in Fife remains distinctly Baltic. The plans to train together have been laid waste by freezing temperatures, icy roads and snow.

The Bigman and I did however share 2 activities today. The first was the Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative annual sale with the Fit One. The Bigman has purchased his bike box in which will fly his precious Trek cargo to South Africa. The Fit one and I bought some gloves and bits and pieces we needed.

Our second shared activity was attempting to drive out of Edinburgh at 5pm tonight. The weather had closed in with hailstones like peppermint balls raining from the heavens. On top of that temperatures dipped below freezing and the road out to the Forth Road Bridge froze to create a skating rink that a certain bunch of celebs could have danced on incompetently! We ended up in the same queue of cars practicing pirouettes and pas des deux whilst attempting to avoid the panic brakers and tail end drivers.

So a 35 minute drive took 3 and a half hours. We would have been quicker on the mountain bikes.

The chat in the coffee shop after our visit to the bike sale was around a ride out tomorrow. Initially conditions today looked favourable in that it appeared to be melting and we hoped for a better day tomorrow. We'll see and whilst we remain positive and hopeful a few more inches of snow might put an end to our ambition.

It seems like a long time since the posse hit the road last......

Happy New Year from Posse Ecosse

It is the last days of 2009. The year Ironman identified a new challenge and invited Bigman to join him in their Epic Caper to South Africa in March 2010. This is now just over 10 weeks away. Coverted to days and it is only 75 more training days.

It seems like the season to do reviews of 2009 and why should the Ecosse Posse be any different. The build up started almost 9 months ago to the day when Moonwalker typed ferociously on the keyboard to successfully gain one of the 100 wild card entries to the Cape Epic 2010 Mountain Bike Race. The other 99 had gone within 120 seconds. Bigman had prepared himself for success and so whilst the trepidation grew, a successful entry was not in doubt.

And so our story began with many friends joining the posse on our many training routes. The Posse has toured Scotland in May, seeing the sights from Carbisdale Castle near Bonar Bridge, to Ullapool, the fishing port with the fish and chip shop that imports fish from Iceland, to Saucy Mary's guest house in Skye and on down via Eilan Donan Castle before the snow showers hit the posse near the Cluannie Inn. We were pelted with rain and cars that wanted to get close, passing down to Fort William and met up with soul mates from New Zealand whilst in Killin.

In May, some locals revolted during the Caledonian Etape to deflate the Bigman's hopes of breaking the 4 hour barrier for 81 miles by laying carpet tacks on the road.

As the Bigman was between jobs, he and the Wee Yin headed off to 'do the French Alpine Classic Climbs' over a four week period and the sun shone gloriously for four weeks. As a 'brucey bonus they camped at the foot on Mont Ventoux and climbed the mighty mountain 2 week before Lance Armstrong and his mates arrived for the real gig.

This was all a prelude to the inaugural Col du Carnock International Meet held in August with an international field. Local knowledge won the day with The Ironman winning by a fat margin and a flat tyre.

As the days grew shorter, the nights grew longer and the birds headed for warmer climbs, the posse settled in to the long winter nights with regular outings to climb the Col du Cleish in the dark nights. This encouraged some nocturnal cyclists to join the posse.

Bigman headed off to warmer climates for some winter training in Lanzarote before returning to the big freeze which has decimated the plans for holiday training during the festive period.

And as the year drew to a close, a new generation of cyclists was born, Junior I has added Junior III to the family and Junior II has added Junior IV to the family.

The Posse has had many friends joining Bigman and The Ironman on its outings including The Fit One, The Duracell, Santiago, The Gasman, Wingman, The Wee Yin , Little Nemo, The Shredder, The Marathon Man, Junior I, Junior II, The Boss, Clyde, Knight Rider and some other that have only been known as the unnamed riders to protect their identity.

It is estimated the Posse have covered over 5000 miles been covered in 2009, many tales recounted on these pages, and many deeper friendships built.

In the end, it is all about relationships. As the hours of 2009 slip away and we raise a glass to 2010, we can look forward to the Ecosse Posse riding out once again renewed by the challenge of man against machine and building even greater friendships.

Happy new Year.

Cold blast freezes training plans

It was a disappointing start to the day.A text from The Fit One outlining the truth about road conditions which prompted Bigman to consult with Ironman. The result was a cancelled training run. As Ironman has stated in his update, a broken arm at this stage would scupper all hope of recovery in time for the Cape Epic in under 12 weeks.

Bigman did a reckie on the web to find a leisure centre which was open. Cowdenbeath was the target for a couple of hours hard graft and to get the heart pumping and the shed some of the Christmas excess.

20 minutes on the step machine with an average target heart rate of 150 bpm formed the warm up. Next up came a 30 minute run continuing with the average target heart rate of 150 bpm. A few weights in between to work on the core before moving onto the bike 45 minutes set a a stiff resistance. The first 30 minutes were target 150 bpm with the dial turned up for the last 10 minutes and a lung busting 170 bph. Day 3 and the ascend shaped like a sombrero was in the mind of Bigman as he forced the pedals around another cycle.

It took some amount of paper towels to clean the litres of fluid shed on the bike.

A few more weights for wind down and it was done. A good 150 minute workout and another session planned for tomorrow.

Whilst the Christmas scene in Dunfermline is pretty, it is not good for the training

Icy roads force epic pair indoors

The weather continues to be cold. Very cold. The roads continue to be frozen. Very frozen.

The disappointed duo have been forced onto the spin bikes and gym. We were going to have a big training week but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. With artic temperatures predicted right through until New Year it's not looking good for the holiday training plan. A slip or fall resulting in a broken arm or collar bone would be a disaster with 12 weeks to go.

So for me I'll run - great for fat burning and spin instead of going out. It's good to have the facilities at home.

Wee Yin gets a big surprise from Santa

It was silver in colour, it was metal, and it glistened in the sunlight.

The Wee Yin was both delighted and surprised to find Bigman had been so thoughtful in selecting an appropriate Christmas present.

After all, it is not every husband who would buy his wife a new set of pedals with cleats on one side to aid efficiency of cycling, complete with reflectors on the end to shine in the dark.

The look, as she opened the parcel, was a picture! Clearly the gift was a success as she had not been expecting this.

:-)

Happy Christmas

Christmas brings cape epic goodies.....

Happy Christmas!

A couple of weeks rest whilst not necessarily impacting my fitness levels has definitely affected my waistline. I could body double for Santa if required this season!

The snow looks like it's slowly beginning to melt but the forecast for next week looks like more of this weeks winter blast with snow and freezing temperatures. This has been the most snow I think I've seen in 20 years and it doesn't normally last as long as it has. We're hoping to do a bit of training on the road next week so hopefully we'll get a couple of days respite and be able to get out there. Thank goodness for the spin bike!

Santa dropped of some bike goodies with a suspension seat post and a camelbak being the pick of race necessities. I think I've got most of the equipment that I need for race either on order or already delivered.

Anyway today seemed as good a day to train as any so with the presents opened I set off for my spin bike. I decided since it was Christmas I would have a reasonably gentle 45 minutes but somehow you can't so the spin bike resistance was cranked up and I pounded my way up an imaginary Knockhill with Moonwalker running on the treadmill beside me.

Sadly the 650 calories burnt will in no way cover the Christmas feast that awaits at my sisters today. So I'll be back on the bike tomorrow in the vein hope that the past 2 weeks inactivity and the inevitable high calorie count over the next week or so can be mitigated as best as possible.

Having said that it is Christmas and the months of January and February are going to be particulaly hard in terms of training and food discipline so it's quite nice to relax and enjoy both the occasion and the food. As most people know I do love my food!

Have a fab Christmas and enjoy the day!