Strength / Weight Training

You clearly set a goal you are passionate about, so of course it's annoying if you can't reach it.

Gym near work, and doing "not perfect" stuff may help.
If the gym doesn't happen, tabata kettlebells or sprints on the bike can perhaps still happen and HIIT cardio workouts don't take much time.
(cos you end up on the floor ;)

Something that's flexible perhaps, if there's a gym nearby and you can go before work, great, if not perhaps another option is handier?

The green powder is hellish.

Good luck! ;)

+1 to a gym near work - I go 4 times a week on my lunch. I usually do an hour but appreciate that's not possible for everyone. Getting up earlier would be my suggestion but not one I would be able to do!

Exactly. If you're a nightowl and tend to sit up to around or beyond midnight, the whole morning thing is a disaster.

I think some kettlebells for the house would be a decent investment.

Tell your missus to get you a set of these:

Which costs more than the house it sits in.

I'd LOVE to have them!

£500 vs London gym membership at £70 pcm.
I've made my money back for sure.

In a strict comparison considering performance potential and athletic results there is no way they can compete with a proper weight room with barbells etc.
But in the reality of a bicycle nerd holding down a 40-50 hours a week job in London with a hectic spare time this is, for me, the surest way to results. I've had them for a little under a year and the mirror shows more changes I than I ever saw in 15+ years of under utilized gym memberships.

By Thursday/Friday I'm normally feeling pretty fucked and the cycle from work feels really hard. Any ideas how to reduce that?

Oh and it's not heavy enough for my curls... Needs moar plates.

Are the plates stable? No rattle?

Depends what you mean by feeling fucked?
My commuter fatigue was a mix of poor sleep and a monotonous route. Changing routes helped a lot...having a newborn didn't.

How far is your commute and what do you eat straight off the bike both ways?

Commute is only 6.5 miles but that will soon go up to 11.

I think it's to do with when I eat during the day. I find if I eat something around 3 then that actually causes a crash at 5:30-6.

I think its mostly mental.

I get the same type of fatigue, and the only way around it is getting 8+ hours of sleep on my lifting days. maybe up your water intake throughout the day?

Will try getting more sleep but that's a bit of a wild card.

I get through 3 litres of water at work... Then the odd glass at home.

Ahhh the late afternoon lull. Coffee crash, not enough slow release carbs at lunch, mental exhaustion at how stupid Gordon can be....
Grab a banana whilst you get changed, leave work but just lock your bike up and do something else for 5 mins before you head off. I used to pop into a record store just down the road and flick through the racks before going home. I found those extra few minutes to normalise myself before heading home helped a lot instead of dragging the days stress straight onto the bike.

As for sleep, zma can help you get into a deeper sleep quicker, giving you more useful sleep. Although what I found with zma is that if I get woken up during the night I have real difficulties getting back to sleep.

Drinking milk powder or malt drink before bed helps me get to sleep (hot obvies).

I sometimes make a smoothie with oats in it for before I leave the house in the morning as it's quicker than making hot porridge etc

Not 100% rattle free, no. But not so bad that I feel it gets in the way of anything.
I still think it's a good solution overall. Not quite perfect though, looks ugly.

My hope is that in the future there will be plenty of competing products - sleeker, more elegant ones. Anodised and made to millimetre precision.
As long as the price benchmark are classic olympic style barbells, these things will always seem pricey. But I am hoping that one day a product will appear that will create a whole new market. A bit like when the first iPod dropped and people suddenly realised they had that kind of money to spend on an mp3 player. When the adjustable dumbbells start getting cool we will hopefully get an arms race of increasingly sophisticated models.

I use these approx 4-5 hours per week, so the investment can be spread out over that amount of time. A bit like how you justify investing in Phil Wood hubs or Sidi shoes.

The green powder is hellish.

Good luck! ;)

A work colleague gave me a try of his, any health benefits negated by the feeling I was about to puke/burning acrid taste in the back of my mouth.

Might order some :D

I just offloaded mine to a colleague - couldn't stomach anymore of the stuff!

Haha! Mine arrived today, will try it when I get home...

Needs a rection Vine

It wasn't that bad!

Turns out in a standard cake recipe, you can replace part of the flour with protein powder.
And if yours has sweetener in it, it can also part replace sugar. Helps if you don't have fancy smancy stuff in the cupboard.

Proteinpow.com <<<

Yep, that's a handy book, but do you sometimes not feel like not reading another recipe and trying yourself?

Also, I didn't have dales/avocado/stevia/and other substitution in the house... :)

I think I could get addicted to those promax lean bars. The choc mint is well nice, though a bit chewy.