If you're still checking this blog for updates, stop and get move over to www.tomcopeland.co.uk
Its fully up and running now with regular updates.
I won't really be updating this blog here anymore.
4 Jan 2010
23 Dec 2009
Change
So its been work-in-progress for a while there but the upgrade from this blog is getting there, well there's enough on there at the moment to make a worthwhile Opening so to speak.
So go along to www.tomcopeland.co.uk and have a look. Feel free to leave feedback as long as its productive! and save it in your favorites so you can just pop back everytime you're online!!
I'll keep it updated regularly so you can follow what i'm up to.
Go have a look.
NOW!
So go along to www.tomcopeland.co.uk and have a look. Feel free to leave feedback as long as its productive! and save it in your favorites so you can just pop back everytime you're online!!
I'll keep it updated regularly so you can follow what i'm up to.
Go have a look.
NOW!
18 Dec 2009
Lanza Part 2
So after a bit of rain on Wednesday things got back to normal for Thursday and today with a BIG sun in the sky to get the tan lines back on track! Yesterday me and matt headed out for an awesome 5hr ride which pretty much took us on a complete tour of the island heading up north to get some nice long climbs in, where we bumped into 5 of the Rabobank fellas out doing what looked like hill reps… they were climbing a lot faster than us anyway. At the top of the climb clad in his Dutch national champs kit, looking the dogs nuts was Koos Moerenhout (spelling?!) just standing around shooting the sh1t with one of the DS’s I guess… lazy pros! So we soon dropped them and carried on turning down south and realising that since coming out the wind had picked up slightly, well a hellova lot actually! So there we were twatting it out side by side just trying to hold 10mph! Good times. Down the south of the island we caught some more good long climbs and looped back round to finish with about 20k’s of sweet tailwind to blow us back home and straight to the fridge to start stuffing our mouths in prep for tomorrow!
Wednesdays ride stats… 5h01 ; 88miles ; 5700 calories burnt ; 2100m of ascent ; 312 watts average (doesn’t mean much to me!)
After the epic day yesterday I stuffed myself silly and woke up this morning feeling wayyyy too bloated so I headed out for 1h15 before breakfast to burn off a bit of yesterdays grub. The weather wasn’t too bad I guess seeing as its 5inches of snow back home… at 9.45 this morning it was easily 20degrees in the sun!
I headed out again this afternoon with matt for a loop down to the National Park on the Island which is literally like riding through Mars, called Timanfaya Nt. Park. Sadly the clouds had moved in making it a bit cooler but this eve I think I still managed a bit of tan as my arms are steaming and red yet again! Good times.
Only 3days riding left out here before heading back home, and having seen photos from back home I’m not sure how much real training will be done given the amount of white stuff falling from the sky! Hopefully the flight will still be running!! I need to get back to finish off my Christmas shopping! Nothing like a last minute rush.
Right, I’m stealing internet here from the Germans living next door by picking up their wireless… the hitch is I can only pick up a good signal by sitting on their drive-way! I can hear some noises going on from their direction so best head off sharp-ish!
I’ll try and get a part 3 in before I leave, that’s if I’m not locked up in Lanza for wifi theft…
P.S. I’ll try get some snaps up too.
Wednesdays ride stats… 5h01 ; 88miles ; 5700 calories burnt ; 2100m of ascent ; 312 watts average (doesn’t mean much to me!)
After the epic day yesterday I stuffed myself silly and woke up this morning feeling wayyyy too bloated so I headed out for 1h15 before breakfast to burn off a bit of yesterdays grub. The weather wasn’t too bad I guess seeing as its 5inches of snow back home… at 9.45 this morning it was easily 20degrees in the sun!
I headed out again this afternoon with matt for a loop down to the National Park on the Island which is literally like riding through Mars, called Timanfaya Nt. Park. Sadly the clouds had moved in making it a bit cooler but this eve I think I still managed a bit of tan as my arms are steaming and red yet again! Good times.
Only 3days riding left out here before heading back home, and having seen photos from back home I’m not sure how much real training will be done given the amount of white stuff falling from the sky! Hopefully the flight will still be running!! I need to get back to finish off my Christmas shopping! Nothing like a last minute rush.
Right, I’m stealing internet here from the Germans living next door by picking up their wireless… the hitch is I can only pick up a good signal by sitting on their drive-way! I can hear some noises going on from their direction so best head off sharp-ish!
I’ll try and get a part 3 in before I leave, that’s if I’m not locked up in Lanza for wifi theft…
P.S. I’ll try get some snaps up too.
16 Dec 2009
lanzarote - part one
My lanzarote training camp started with the inevitable bun fight also known as « flying with EasyJet » ! and the hours leading up to the flight didn’t exactly put my in a great frame of mind to get my gloves on and join the party. My flight was a fairly early 8am take off meaning an early check-in and even earlier alarm call… that’s if I had had any sleep! I couldn’t manage to scrounge a lift off my parents, meaning I had to get the last train to Gatwick and find a comfy bench to try and get a bit of shut eye between 1 and 6am! Not going to happen!
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of spending the night in Gatwick airport… or any other one for that matter… its actually quite interesting! And thankfully Costa coffee is open all night, meaning that I could get stupidly buzzing on coffee to get me through the night.
The flight over all went to plan and before I knew it I was In the apartment getting settled and catching up with Matt. Oh and having left England with two t-shirts, jumper and coat I was soon stripping off, still being too hot in a t-shirt! I could get used to this!!
So day one was meant to be just get settled and chill out but after building the bike I just couldn’t resist getting out there in the sun… so 3hrs and 50odd miles later I rolled back in wearing short sleeved jersey and shorts… hold on its December?? This just didn’t feel right, but who’s complaining!
I’m writing this after 4 days of being here and so far, apart from today the weather has been wicked. Yesterday in particular I got some serious tan lines going again! And a bright red face where I’d just burnt! Give it a few days and ill be brown as … umm something nice and brown I guess.
So I did say “apart from today”, this is because the weather has turned a bit and today has been pretty much non-stop drizzle and during my 2h30 spin I hit some proper downpours. I was laughing out loud at one point as I rode through a town called “Florida” as someone upstairs turned the tap on big style … riding through florida in a rain shower but still being too hot in a long sleeve jersey. Madness.
So after a nice steady ride yesterday the plan is to get a good tour of the island in with a 4-5hr ride with Matt, hopefully bumping in to some Rabobank or Highroad-Columbia riders out on the road. So far I have crossed paths with a few of the Columbia guys, not Cavendish yet im afraid or any off the Dutch lads in orange.
In the last few days we have seen quite a bit of a dutch rider called Erik who rode for the continental team Trek Marco Polo this year and is still a pro in Holland next year. A proper nice bloke and someone I’ll hopefully cross paths with during the 2010 season.
So far then, I have clocked over 240miles and burnt 13,365 calories! That’s a lot of eating that needs to be done!
Best get on with it.
Enjoy the snow back home!
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of spending the night in Gatwick airport… or any other one for that matter… its actually quite interesting! And thankfully Costa coffee is open all night, meaning that I could get stupidly buzzing on coffee to get me through the night.
The flight over all went to plan and before I knew it I was In the apartment getting settled and catching up with Matt. Oh and having left England with two t-shirts, jumper and coat I was soon stripping off, still being too hot in a t-shirt! I could get used to this!!
So day one was meant to be just get settled and chill out but after building the bike I just couldn’t resist getting out there in the sun… so 3hrs and 50odd miles later I rolled back in wearing short sleeved jersey and shorts… hold on its December?? This just didn’t feel right, but who’s complaining!
I’m writing this after 4 days of being here and so far, apart from today the weather has been wicked. Yesterday in particular I got some serious tan lines going again! And a bright red face where I’d just burnt! Give it a few days and ill be brown as … umm something nice and brown I guess.
So I did say “apart from today”, this is because the weather has turned a bit and today has been pretty much non-stop drizzle and during my 2h30 spin I hit some proper downpours. I was laughing out loud at one point as I rode through a town called “Florida” as someone upstairs turned the tap on big style … riding through florida in a rain shower but still being too hot in a long sleeve jersey. Madness.
So after a nice steady ride yesterday the plan is to get a good tour of the island in with a 4-5hr ride with Matt, hopefully bumping in to some Rabobank or Highroad-Columbia riders out on the road. So far I have crossed paths with a few of the Columbia guys, not Cavendish yet im afraid or any off the Dutch lads in orange.
In the last few days we have seen quite a bit of a dutch rider called Erik who rode for the continental team Trek Marco Polo this year and is still a pro in Holland next year. A proper nice bloke and someone I’ll hopefully cross paths with during the 2010 season.
So far then, I have clocked over 240miles and burnt 13,365 calories! That’s a lot of eating that needs to be done!
Best get on with it.
Enjoy the snow back home!
1 Dec 2009
improvements
have a look at http://www.tomcopeland.webs.com/
trying to expand into more than just a blog.
Keep tuned for updates. I'm off down the gym, will continue this afternoon.
t
trying to expand into more than just a blog.
Keep tuned for updates. I'm off down the gym, will continue this afternoon.
t
30 Nov 2009
More from Jens
Not sure if i've posted this before but check it out... video of Jens Voight (LEGEND!) in hospital not long after he face planted the asphelt on stage 16 of the Tour de France this year. One of the most horrific crashes i've ever seen but nothing can stop this guy!
http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=1217
Have a look.
http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=1217
Have a look.
My posts are like buses....
... nothing comes for ages then more than one come at once!
A little training update. Last sunday i headed up to crawley for a ride with the Onelife Development Squad http://www.onelifedevelopmentsquad.com/. Was good to catch up with good mates on the ride but any fun turned pretty quickly to uncomfort, coldness, pain... anything describing the unhappy state i was in on my bike! The weather had turned from strong-ish winds with light rain to full blown gales and horizontal Hail smashing into our faces within about 10seconds! The delights of english weather! This lasted pretty much for the last hour of the 3hr+ ride... by the end we were racing to get back to the showers first!
Since then it hasn't really changed much, the wind has been nearly gale force since i can remember now and it has rained everyday! This has sparked my need to get out of this country... the solution... LANZAROTE!
Flights are booked, i'm getting out of here on the 13th december for 9days of riding in the sun with Matt Green. I'm flying out early in the morning to Arrecife then head down to the appartment we're renting in a small town called Guime, dont know much about Lanzarote apart from going there once when i was young but apparently the riding is pretty good out there, with club la santa a bit further north on the island where loads of training camps head out to avoid the crappy english weather. I'll have 9days of riding out there in the sun (it will b sunny no doubt about it!!) and as we are 10mins walk from the beach, maybe i'll have to top up the tan while im there!
Just to rub it in to anyone reading, i've just checked the weather forecast out there for this week... Today to friday SUN 23/24degrees; SATURDAY 26DEGREES SUN 9mph wind!
WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
ill take lots of photos to rub it in a little bit more! Just need to get through 2 weeks more shite weather over here first though!
alrite, a bientot,
Tom
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