Performance Improvements

It's all getting a bit close now. There is only four weeks to go to the Maratona and only one week to the Dragon Ride. I'm feeling a bit less anxious about it all now and I'm actually starting to look forward to the challenge of the big event. The reasons for this change are two fold.

Firstly, we had great support from colleagues at work who turned up to support the team and raise money for BCH. I was taken aback by the level of support from several of the participants that had collected money locally and brought it along on the day. I was particularly impressed by a colleague who had travelled all the way from the Halewood plant in Merseyside to support us.

Secondly, I've managed to get some solid training out on the road as the nights are now lighter and I'm able to see the last 8 months training paying off. This has shown up in one particular segment on Strava where I have seen a 33% reduction in my time when riding at threshold. On Thursday night I went out for an endurance ride and averaged 30 kph, which I couldn't get anywhere near when I started.

My climbing speed has also improved and I can now climb hills without going into my threshold zone. I'm also able to ride at 25kph in the recovery zone (my top speed when I started was only about 24kph).

So, the next big milestone is the longer climbs on the Dragon ride on Sunday, stay tuned for an update.

7 weeks to go

We're all down to seven weeks to go to the Maratona and we are well into our threshold training blocks. I lost a week of training due to a lower back injury, but, I'm fully back into the swing of training again. Threshold training is mentally much easier than endurance, but, physically it's on a different level.

Kate, Kirsten and I spent a weekend at Center Parcs, which was a great getaway. However, the training was definitely interesting. Trying to do threshold training with so many people walking and cycling in random directions doesn't make for the easiest of sessions. There were several interesting moments where I caught up with other cyclists only to have them drift across the path in front of me. The most interesting point was when I caught up with a Hen Party walking six abreast across the road. Two moved to the left, three moved to the right and the sixth woman frozen in the middle of the road. Assuming that she was going to move, I chose to aim straight for her. She finally moved out the way just before I'd have needed to brake, which was handy as I was travelling well over the site speed limit of 10 mph at the time.

The next big milestone for the team is on Friday 25th May when we are organising a sponsored cycle event on the Jaguar Land Rover test track at Gaydon. This will hopefully raise the profile of the main event as well as raising some more money from the keen cyclists at work.

After this we are all focused on the Wiggle Dragon Ride on 10th June which is our final warm up event prior to the main event. This ride is 206km and climbs 3350m. I'm getting a bit nervous about this one now as it will be the farthest I've ridden and there is a lot more climbing than I have ever done before, but, I've done the training, so (as I keep being told) I should be fine - fingers crossed, eh!

Festive Training

Well the festive period is over and it's the start of a new year, so it's back to work and also back to more structured training. My plan for the holiday was to get out on the road and put in some longer rides. I started reasonably well on the 22nd, but it all went a bit wrong the next day when I pulled a muscle in my back. Unfortunately, this meant I was off the bike for a whole week. I managed to get another ride on the 30th with Simon, even though it was raining for the entire ride. It was a new experience having to wring out my shoe covers and my socks at the end of the ride. I managed to get out again on the 2nd of January and rode endurance on part of my route to work, so, it definitely looks like cycling to work is a possibility to allow me to get a greater volume of training in.

Another plus is that I'm seeing a significant improvement in my speed, even riding in my endurance zone. My average speed on a ride is now 24 kph, where I was previously doing in the region of 18 kph when riding way above my endurance zone.

I'm going to have to get back on the turbo trainer tonight as the weather is pretty grotty at the moment and I haven't trained for two days. Hopefully, I'll manage a decent session to get me back on track after the holiday.

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I've posted on here, so, here goes.

I have now been following Dr. Garry Palmer's training plan for seven weeks. I've generally achieved the required amount of time on the bike in those weeks, so, I feel pretty good about that and I've managed to achieve my target weight (79.9Kgs) without changing my diet very much. Since that first target is now out of the way I'll need to carry on with the interim training schedule and then have another consultation with Garry in January. In the meantime I am trying to ride with my heart rate in the top half of my zone (139-144 BPM) and I have to add a threshold training session to my plan as well as increasing the duration of my endurance rides. Currently the biggest problem I am having with long rides on the turbo trainer is that my backside is going to sleep after about fifty minutes. Thanks to a bit of advice from Gav, I have found that standing up and turning a big gear for a couple of minutes relieves the pressure and gets the blood flowing again, allowing me to do a bit more.

Thanks to the speed and cadence sensor Steve loaned me, I can now log how fast I am riding. At the moment I am achieving 22kph. The quick test I did riding in the gear I was initially using on the turbo trainer shows I was only doing 15kph, so I've made a significant improvement. Whether this magnitude of improvement will transfer to the road or not remains to be seen. An unstructured ride on the road in the near future is in order.

Second Week of Turbo Training

I'm well into my endurance training now. I've completed two weeks on the turbo trainer. I managed to squeeze in two hours fifty minutes last week. I 'm currently building up the time on the bike during each session. My ultimate goal is to be able to do ninety minutes on a Friday and an hour on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I could also do with getting back out on the road for a change of scenery, staring at the inside of the garage door is only interesting for so long.