Cycle 2007- The Show Hits Earl's Court

Keen to see the new Madone 6.9pro that he'll be riding in 2008, Tim Don took time out of a busy Saturday to pop down to Earl's Court while the Cycle 2007 show was in full force. The 2007 National Triathlon Champion spent over an hour signing autographs for fans before getting anywhere near his bike,  and then spent the next 30 minutes talking bikes with the visitors to the show.
Tim will be training in South Africa over much of the winter where he will be riding a new 6.9pro while he waits for the custom painted Madone he'll be competing on in 2008. It's nice to see that even an athlete at Tim's level of ability, can still be like an excited kid when it comes to new shiney and expensive kit. And I though it was just me.

Tim's fractured elbow, an injury sustained at the Beijing World Cup a few weeks ago, seems to be on the mend and he's looking forward to getting back on the bike. You can keep up to date with what Tim gets up to on his own website, timdon.com.

Fixing a Fat pt:3-Out Comes The Heart Rate Monitor!

It's unlikely that I'll ever be a travel writer, and, to be fair, I'm not sure I'd want to be one. However, I feel today's little jaunt around the roads of Northamptonshire would fit in more with that genre than with a training diary. It seemed to have an archtectural bent; by taking a slightly different route, (let's face it, the same route would have sent me to sleep let alone you), I ended up noticing a couple of churches, not because I'm a religious man, (spiritual maybe, but definitely not religious), but because they're actually quite impressive structures. They're on the map with red markers but here's the first.

As far as the fat busting goes, I've lost a kilo somewhere along the line and felt pretty good out on the ride. So much so that I went for a max heart rate, (MHR), blast up a long slope. If you're just getting into fitness and want to use MHR to set training levels, the simplest method I've heard of is to subtract your age from 220. I'd say this is staggeringly innacurate as it would leave me with a MHR of 175, so I really should have piked out at 176. However, I ran out of hill at 191 and still managed to ride the rest of the way home at a pretty keen speed, (for a fat bloke). Even when I was training for the Etape in 2005, my MHR was 194, so I'm happy it's still possible to get it up that high.
One thing I should say is that unless you're 'in tune' with your body and you recognise your limitations, then you shouldn't really try a MHR blast, (however unscientific, like mine), without consulting a doctor first. 
Training takes a backseat for a while now as we get into the Cycle Show build up.

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