Training
Missed a night in the gym towards the end of the week, but I'm not too concerned as I managed two days out on the bike at the weekend. Five hours and 110km on Saturday alongside a a new training buddy who is also training for La Marmotte. Could begin to get competitive as we near the event possibly, however, I think I need to drop the pounds as this guy is small and lean, I've seen more meat on a butcher's knife, otherwise he'll leave me sitting on the climbs. My day was good on Saturday, however, my training partners' was anything but. We travelled to Dalkey to meet a third member of our group, why I'm not so sure because he was only the third member for about 30 mins before declaring himself unfit enough to continue with the likes of ourselves and set off on a detour to return home. Its not like he was out with Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly for Christ's sake.
During this 30 mins as a trio I ventured the usual periodic glance behind to confirm the group was still in tact, not because I'm so quick that nobody can keep up, more logistics, traffic, accidents and of course punctures. I quickly noticed there was now only two of us, myself and the 30 minute man; my Marmotte training partner had vanished like a fart in the wind. Slowly, slowly for the next few minutes but still no sign of him catching up. I retraced our route to find him repairing a puncture at the roadside, his third for the week he declared in a pissed off tone. He had forgotten his pump so I produced my little hand pump and proceeded to inflate the deflated tyre, after he had inserted a new tube. About 2 mins later with the wheel nearing the required pressure and my arm about to fall off with the effort, BANG!, the fucking tube blew up. Christ, a fucking hand pump blew the tube, shit tubes those Continentals we reckoned, I retrieved a Schwalbe tube from my saddle bag and for the second time began the pump, pump, pump action of a man possessed. And yes, we had already checked the tyre for debris, glass, etc.
That tube held until we neared Ashord, then the familiar cries of "Jesus, not again!", forewarned of another impending session with my hand pump, yep, another feckin puncture. This time however, I cut a strip from the punctured tube and lined a particular section of the rim of his wheel where there was what appeared to be a manufacturing impairment (raised edge on the inside of the rim), which was probably nipping the tube, causing our anguish, or his anguish more like. At least it was a dry day, would have been a lot more miserable had we been repairing the punctures in a downpour.
After spending so much time repairing punctures we changed our route to avoid the bigger hills as it was closing in towards sunset, still a good spin though and I could feel it on Sunday when I ventured out again on the ThinBike club spin. Sunday was my first time to scale "the wall", a hill near Djouce with gradient of 19% (according to my garmin), thankfully its not that long. After two hours I was beginning to bonk and needed to stop at a shop for some well deserved chocolate which provided ample fuel to guide me home during the half hour following. Resting up today, after being out for a meal last night treating the Mrs to a valentines dinner.
Reading a new book on training, or should I say my first book on training. Whether I implement any of it or not only time will tell.
Sports Betting
No joy at the weekend, all dockets beaten. Inter couldn't muster a goal against Juve (Juventus 1 v 0 Inter) for the four timer, both to score bet. MK Dons, likewise, could only share the points with Brentford (1 - 1 draw) to scupper the home wins bet. The greyhound longshot at 10/1 finished second to the favourite. Happy with this bet as it required the fav to find a little trouble to enable a victory but such was not the case. He also returned 5/1, half the odds available the day prior to the event. Well, as I self proclaim many a time, 'can't win every day'.
February is titter tottering from profit to loss, currently back in loss territory. There are a few games on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, English leagues and Champions League. The Champions league games look tight enough, plus it becomes increasingly difficult predicting these games, especially for a win, draw, loss scenario, as they are played over two legs and team/management strategies play a large part.
As a Spurs fan I will be shouting on Harrys men against the Italian so called giants AC Milan. Spurs are quite capable on their day of lowering the flag of such mighty adversaries, however, it will be a tad more difficult without the very talented Gareth Bale. They will still field a strong team and their opponents are ageing in a few departments which could prove to be their inherent weakness over the two legs. I would be happy with a draw Tuesday evening, with everything to fight for at White Harte Lane during the second leg.
Same pattern as before, 'Both Teams to Score' & 'Home Wins' are the predictions midweek, below:
Both Teams To Score
Exeter v Swindon
Torquay v Burton Albion
Sheff Utd v Reading
Southend v Wycombe
Tranmere v Sheff Wed
Aldershot v Lincoln
Accumulator with first four pays approx 7/1
Accumulator with first five pays approx 12/1
Accumulator with all six pays approx 20/1
Home Wins
Tranmere
Hamburg
Watford
Treble pays approx 7/1
That tube held until we neared Ashord, then the familiar cries of "Jesus, not again!", forewarned of another impending session with my hand pump, yep, another feckin puncture. This time however, I cut a strip from the punctured tube and lined a particular section of the rim of his wheel where there was what appeared to be a manufacturing impairment (raised edge on the inside of the rim), which was probably nipping the tube, causing our anguish, or his anguish more like. At least it was a dry day, would have been a lot more miserable had we been repairing the punctures in a downpour.
After spending so much time repairing punctures we changed our route to avoid the bigger hills as it was closing in towards sunset, still a good spin though and I could feel it on Sunday when I ventured out again on the ThinBike club spin. Sunday was my first time to scale "the wall", a hill near Djouce with gradient of 19% (according to my garmin), thankfully its not that long. After two hours I was beginning to bonk and needed to stop at a shop for some well deserved chocolate which provided ample fuel to guide me home during the half hour following. Resting up today, after being out for a meal last night treating the Mrs to a valentines dinner.
Reading a new book on training, or should I say my first book on training. Whether I implement any of it or not only time will tell.
Sports Betting
No joy at the weekend, all dockets beaten. Inter couldn't muster a goal against Juve (Juventus 1 v 0 Inter) for the four timer, both to score bet. MK Dons, likewise, could only share the points with Brentford (1 - 1 draw) to scupper the home wins bet. The greyhound longshot at 10/1 finished second to the favourite. Happy with this bet as it required the fav to find a little trouble to enable a victory but such was not the case. He also returned 5/1, half the odds available the day prior to the event. Well, as I self proclaim many a time, 'can't win every day'.
February is titter tottering from profit to loss, currently back in loss territory. There are a few games on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, English leagues and Champions League. The Champions league games look tight enough, plus it becomes increasingly difficult predicting these games, especially for a win, draw, loss scenario, as they are played over two legs and team/management strategies play a large part.
As a Spurs fan I will be shouting on Harrys men against the Italian so called giants AC Milan. Spurs are quite capable on their day of lowering the flag of such mighty adversaries, however, it will be a tad more difficult without the very talented Gareth Bale. They will still field a strong team and their opponents are ageing in a few departments which could prove to be their inherent weakness over the two legs. I would be happy with a draw Tuesday evening, with everything to fight for at White Harte Lane during the second leg.
Same pattern as before, 'Both Teams to Score' & 'Home Wins' are the predictions midweek, below:
Both Teams To Score
Exeter v Swindon
Torquay v Burton Albion
Sheff Utd v Reading
Southend v Wycombe
Tranmere v Sheff Wed
Aldershot v Lincoln
Accumulator with first four pays approx 7/1
Accumulator with first five pays approx 12/1
Accumulator with all six pays approx 20/1
Home Wins
Tranmere
Hamburg
Watford
Treble pays approx 7/1
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