It was acceptable in the 80s- Overtraining and The FA Cup

I received a training pack through the post, from the charity in the week. This raised loads of questions in my mind especially the paragraph about overtraining.

Signs of over training

• A raised resting heart rate
• Disturbed sleep
• General Tiredness
• A lack of enthusiasm for riding

So let me recap this last couple of weeks, I have had a couple of disturbed sleeps. This is because I had been watching Big Brother, going to bed late and having to get up early for work. I have also been constantly tired and have only been on one big ride since 28th August, a 60 mile ride. So I can conclude maybe I have been overtraining? Or more to the point I have been busy with work and my friend's wedding and I like getting up early even on weekends, so have been short on sleep. This will only get better as BB has finished so I can get an early night or two.

Also it talks of training tips "work your weakness not your strengths. If you hate hill climbing, go and climb. If you hate riding on long flats, ride long flats." What about if you hate cycling? Their tip is surely to cycle lots. I had three options today:

• To go to Bristol Open Days when many of Bristol’s significant contemporary and historic buildings open their doors to the general public 
• Go to a Bristol Cycling Festival event, as there is almost 100 cycling inspired events around Bristol between 11th and 26th September.
• 3rd option came up after listening to Talksport radio, realising it was FA Cup 1st Round

So going back to a previous blog I thought I would use football as treat and combine the other two options, create my own cycling event and visit a significant site, (well I had never visited Bitton AFC's stadium, the Recreation Ground) I would therefore force myself into getting on the bike and train.
I am however not going to extend that training tip to start putting vinegar on my chips, filthy.
The handy part to getting to the Bitton ground is it is really close to a cycling route which is all off road and the whole journey only has 200 metres of road cycling. It uses the Bristol to Bath disused railway.

At this stage you are probably thinking where is the link to the 80s? Well my girlfriend has gone to Langley nr Slough and taken our digital camera with her. I thought that is okay I have a phone with a camera but I remembered my phone is broken and my temporary phone is the Nokia 1800. This is an amazing phone it even has a flash light function in the top, but no camera.

Smart Phone? No camera

Thirty years ago people wouldn't have even dreamt you would be able to be contactable anywhere by phone and take pictures on the same device. It will be funny to tell the next generation "when I was a lad... you had to remember all your friends telephone numbers off by heart!" Anyway digressing I will have to say there were some good views I couldn't capture today and if you live near Bristol or Bath it is an easy weekend ride to go with the kids. After 9 miles of the cycle path you get to Bitton Steam Railway station and the ground is 200 metres from there.

It was refreshing to go to a local match reminded me of going to see Tonbridge Angels in my 80s youth. It was £5 well spent and this thought must have been shared by about 44 other people. The game was Bitton versus Old Woodstock FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round the result was 3-2 to the away side. I was surprised the high level of standard of their passing games, it was a well fought battle. For a more comprehensive review I am sure my friend who blogs about non-league football will put a post on his blog AdventuresInTinpot when he has time and he has an IPhone so there should be pictures. 

So I will now get an early night, then tomorrow embark on another cycle ride to football and try and incorporate the passing game into Sunday morning football.

Louis