Easy does it, now...

Plastik

Good call on the weight loss, you definitely don't look like you're carrying an extra 10 pounds O_T.

One_Time

Yeah, I think I was getting a bit carried away there! Mind you, I reckon there's gotta be at least an extra pound or two of excess weight in my beard...

One_Time

Finished off the week with the Joe Loughman Randonee from Bray yesterday - including the ride in from home came to 121km with 2000m climbing over 4hrs 40mins. I found it really tough - probably the toughest day in the saddle since the Wicklow 200.

Set off in Bray in a big enough group, having lots of fun cruising down the N11 to Ashford. Felt pretty good going up the first hill towards Barnbawn, but when we got to the plateau at the top of that the lads started jumping about a bit and gaps started to open up. I was hopping onto wheels as much as possible, but when I snatched a glance at the garmin and saw my HR was up in the high 180s on a descent I thought "This isn't good". Kept up with the group until the turnoff for the Shay Elliot, but couldn't find any strength in my legs when the gradient kicked in. Struggled up as far as that little downhill at the switchback, but recovered a little there and settled in for a climb at threshold, thinking I could recover on the descent and at the food stop.

Made it there and had a couple of cheese sandwiches, a heap of Jaffa Cakes and a gorgeous cup of tea, met up with the remains of the group hoping I could do a bit better after that break. Was feeling pretty good on the flat, but the moment the road started going up out of Greenane I knew it wasn't going to happen. I felt like my legs had been replaced with that polystyrene they used to make cheap model planes out of. I sat back and kept my eyes on the HRM as I dragged myself over Ballycreen, Slieve Mann and Shay Elliott (again!).

That stood me in good stead though - I started to feel a bit better around Annamoe (funny enough, just as the wind came behind me), and I took advantage of the tailwind to take two and a half minutes out of my PB from Annamoe to Kilmacanogue, with an average speed of 34kph. Back home then for a really hot bath to try to get my legs to relax!

Overall, it was a tough day out. I pretty much broke myself trying to stay with some seriously fit and fast cyclists, and ended up in bits going over the climbs, but I'm actually really happy about that. Found out a good bit about my limits, hopefully did a bit to improve my fitness and should help my focus too. I think I may have been becoming a bit complacent about my progress after finding the SKT relatively easy and doing OK on a few fast spins, but yesterday reminded me I've still got a fair ways to go!

It was a great day out in general - well organised, deadly food stop, challenging route and a good bunch to cycle with. Fair play to the organisers. Hope they did well for the charity.

Overall for last week I did 208km with 2,900m climbing in 7 hours 30 mins. Biggest week of climbing ever! Weight is down 1.6lbs on spot and 1.4lbs on trended. Still feel like I'm making good progress every week, but getting an idea it's only going to get tougher as I go on.

One_Time

Did 52k with 540m ascent over 1hr 45mins with a small group last night. We kept a pretty steady pace for the first two thirds, with me taking a few goes on the front, then started pushing it a bit on a couple of uphills. Clawed my way back on to wheels for about 5k, then hit the only climb of the route. Took it at my own pace, but possibly hit it a bit hard at the bottom. Managed to take 30secs off my PB up it. Didn't feel as strong on it as last Tuesday, could definitely feel Sunday in my legs, but it must be doing me good, right?

One_Time

The last seven days had been pretty intense - 260km at an average speed of 28kph over a lot of climbing - so I took a recovery spin yesterday. 34km with 470m ascent in 1hr 20mins. Was a nice sunny evening, but quite windy. I'd done a similar spin about a year ago, and it took me about 5 minutes longer with a HR about 30 higher. Have some idea I'm going to do some intervals this evening, but the legs are feeling quite dead at the moment. Have to see how it goes.

One_Time

So went out to try to get some intervals in yesterday evening, but my legs were fading even on my warm up. Within 20 seconds of starting the first interval I knew it just wasn't going to happen. I ended up struggling around 23km in just over an hour, and my legs feel so tired this morning.

I guess my body's been telling me it's wrecked and I just haven't been listening to it. My weight suddenly dropped just over a kilo on Wednesday and has stayed there, my resting pulse rate is slightly higher than it was last week and I've been getting cravings for sugary foods.

I'm going to go visit my folks this weekend, and I'd been planning to cycle up on Saturday (there's a 100k route I took the last time that I've been itching to try again) but I think I might just bring the bike with me and do an easy spin on Sunday to give me an extra day to rest. I think it's also time for me to stop running a calorie deficit, so I need to start getting an extra 600 calories a day into me. I'm only 2lbs off my target weight anyway, so I'm calling this an achieved target :P Judging by my nutrition mix from the last month or so, at least half of that should be coming from protein, so I'm going to go down the butchers today and buy a bag of meat for my lunch (partner's a vegetarian, so there's none in the house usually since I don't like cooking 2 dinners).

Onwards and upwards!

One_Time

I ended up taking the whole weekend off - legs just didn't feel up to it at all - so I only(!) did 110km with 1300m ascent over 4hrs last week. Lowest distance and time in over two months though, so I think I was entitled to a rest!

Got back on the bike yesterday evening for a quick 1hr 20 mins of hills (600m climbing in 30km). Didn't feel great, legs felt very heavy and couldn't get my HR up, but when I came back I had a bunch of PBs on the climbs as well as a decent top 10 on Strava - taking minutes off my times, so I felt better then. Had to have my overshoes on for the first time in months, so hot bath to warm up when I got back! Relaxed spin for a few hours this evening I hope, then some training tomorrow. I've got a stag night this weekend, so I'll try to get out for a quick spin on Saturday morning too, or it'll be two weekends off for me in a row :P

Actually hit my target weight on Saturday morning, but I think I was just really dehydrated and that was part of what was making me feel so rough. May have been running too much of a calorie deficit the last couple of weeks, so I've made a deliberate effort to get more food into me the last couple of days. Mostly whole foods - went to the butcher and the green grocer on Friday, and I've made a few bologneses and stir fries to go in the freezer so I can eat well for lunch. Feeling a good bit more alert than usual this morning, so hopefully that's a good sign.

It's really starting to feel like autumn now, so I'm starting to think about what my schedule's going to be like over the winter. Will I be able to get out in the dark, or should I invest in a turbo trainer?

One_Time

I felt better after taking a weekend off, so I went out and did some climbing on Tuesday - 563 m over 31km in 80 minutes, pushed it hard on the climbs, took it easy in between. I was pretty happy with it - took a fair bit of time off my PBs on three of the climbs, and matched it on the last. Wednesday I did an easy spin, then did 4x3 min intervals on Thursday on the flat. Felt really strong, but looking back over it wasn't as fast as I thought I was relative to times I've done that in the past, and definitely wasn't as wrecked as I could have been when I finished, so don't think I was pushing myself as hard as I could have done. Finished off the week with a nice spin early on Saturday morning. Had a stag night to join in the afternoon, so couldn't get much distance in, so went straight up over the Sally Gap and back home. Again was pretty happy with it - taking a good bit of time off my PBs on pretty much all the strava segments I went through.

Overall for the week:

Distance: 163km
Ascent: 2,141m
Time: 6hrs 18mins
Avg Speed: 25.9kph

This week hope to do much the same thing during the week, but get a decent distance ride in over the weekend to get myself back up around 8 hours. Trying to get as much as possible done before the clocks go back!

One_Time

Went out on Tuesday planning to do 90 minutes, but the weather was so bad I slunk back home after only 50 :$. Did 22km with 285m ascent and got a couple of PBs on some climbs despite the wind.

Skipped my easy spin on Wednesday and then did some intervals on Thursday. Did 6x30sec max efforts with 5mins recovery in between. Was quite happy with them - maxing out slightly over 60kph on the flat, and managed to hit 50kph on a slight uphill. Shattered afterwards! Overall did 25km in 55mins with 165m ascent.

Hoping to do a long spin on Sunday (after painting the living room on Saturday :P)

One_Time

Week 12:
157km
1876m Ascent
5hr 50min
26.9kph

The weather forecast for Sunday dictated a quick reschedule - do the spin on Saturday and paint on Sunday - so I headed off on the local club spin Saturday morning. A big group set off at an easy enough pace, then after about 40km six of us split off to do a recce up to Turlough Hill. We were taking it at a moderate enough pace for the first section, then my turn on the front came just as another new fella injected a bit of pace. I managed to stick it for about two minutes, then all my strength went and I dropped off the back sharpish. The guys were good enough to take it handy when the road flattened out a bit, and I struggled my way back up to the group, but once we went through the gate I'd lost my rhythm and then really suffered the last 3k. As a wiser head said "That's what you get for trying to drop me!"

The good news is that I've learnt a good bit about how long I can keep my HR high before losing performance, and I also know I need to learn how to recognise I'm getting close to that point before I hit it. A bit more power in the legs couldn't hurt either!

After that had a really enjoyable descent to Laragh for coffee and a brownie, then bombed it back home up through Roundwood. All in all did 110k in 4hrs moving. Really good fun, but was wrecked painting the place the next day!

One_Time

BTW, best of luck to everyone doing the Hill Climb next week!

One_Time

Distance: 90km
Time: 3hrs 20mins
Ascent: 1,246m
Avg Speed: 27.2kph

Lowest distance for a week since June! I was feeling shattered in the early part of the week, so I didn't go out for my usual spin on Tuesday. I felt the need to get some confidence back on the hills though, so I went out for a tough enough ride on Wednesday evening. 64km with 1,040m climbing in 2hrs 25mins. Went over some serious climbs and felt very happy with my performance on them, but got completely soaked! Going over Sally Gap my garmin says the temperature dropped to about 3 degrees, at which point my Sealskinz ceased to be waterproof and my hands turned into blocks of ice. Every pull on the breaks coming down past Luggala turned into its own challenge and I was accompanied by a soundtrack of "Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow" the whole way down. Overall pretty pleased with the average speed I managed to maintain over route with a lot of climbing, and some good PBs on climbs despite the windy conditions.

I took Thursday off, then did a quick hour of HIIT on Friday. Didn't manage to get out at all over the weekend though cos I've got some commitments at home I definitely couldn't get out of. May not be able to get out of them this week either, but unfortunately I can't set the schedule for this event

One_Time

Distance: 87km
Time: 3hr 20min
Ascent: 1,089m
Avg Speed: 26kph

Due to personal circumstances I really can't get out of the house for more than an hour or so at the moment, so another week of low distance/time, but I think it was pretty solid anyway. 36k with 730m climbing on Monday - very happy with my speed on the first two climbs. Not my best time on the third one, but I'd pushed myself pretty hard up to then. Then out for 3x3min intervals at 8/9 out of ten effort on Wednesday (the rain really made me feel like I was building character!) and 6x30sec intervals at 9.5/10 on Friday. Wanted to get out for a couple of hours on Sunday, but I was talked into going out for a hike instead.

Picked up a turbo trainer from Letape yesterday, so looking forward to giving that a go over the next few months. Probably be another fortnight before I can go out for a long weekend ride as well so need to keep pretty focused when I can get out.

One_Time

Had my first session on the turbo trainer last night - 50 minutes with 4x3 mins @ 8/10 up to 9/10. It was pretty tough in general - sweating buckets by the end! It was also hard to get the rhythm up at the start, and there was a fair bit of messing round to get the resistance right. Think I got there in the end though.

Don't know if I'd have made it without this though!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvNvlhzTS54

One_Time

Back on the bike again in a big way after a few enforced weeks off it...

Dist: 234 km
Time: 8hr 30min
Ascent: 2,000m
Avg Speed: 27.5kph

Went out on the bank holiday, planning to get a decent long spin with a couple of big climbs done, but felt really weak and ended up only doing 42km at a much lower speed than I'd be used to recently. I think it was a combination of the two weeks off the bike, a lot of lost sleep and an awful lot of slices of cake and choc biscuits during the break. I went out on Thursday and felt a bit better - got 70km in, fairly flat, but it was so windy it was very tough. For a good long stretch I was pushing myself pretty hard and only doing 25kph.

Saturday went out on a club spin - 122km in total. It was a really nice day out - cold but bright - and we didn't push ourselves too hard, but it was good to get a long run under my belt and I definitely felt better than I had done earlier in the week.

Now we're coming into winter I'm going to dial back on the intensity of training. I'm going to try to do two easyish two hour spins during the week, and a long spin each weekend, with one tough hour on the TT midweek and see how I get on.

One_Time

Just realised the Saturday spin brought me over 5,000 km for the year. Well pleased with that!

One_Time

Distance: 144km
Time: 6hs
Ascent: 1,850m
Avg Speed: 24.3kph

Middling intensity 50k ride on Tuesday, followed by a tough hour on the Turbo on Thursday, which left me falling onto the bed as my legs gave way! Hoped to do another middling two hours on Saturday, but life got in the way, so my 70k on the club spin on Sunday left my distance for the week lower than I would have liked. Had a great time on Sunday though - picturesque ride around Wicklow, including the Sally and Wicklow gaps. Took it fairly easy, but hit the climbs fairly hard (although not all out), and had a savage big slice of apple pie in Laragh.

One_Time

Distance: 149km
Time: 5hrs 36mins
Ascent: 1118m
Avg Speed: 26.6kph

Another week down, and again didn't get as many miles under my belt as I would have liked, but i still feel like I'm progressing so I don't feel too bad about it.

On tuesday, I decided to try to get a couple of hours done at medium intensity on the trainer. Bad idea! Despite setting up a decent DVD to watch, I couldn't get through more than an hour. Just too boring!

On Thursday I was back on the TT for a tough hour with a sufferfest video. Really put myself through my paces, and felt the benefit on the club spin on Saturday.

A big crowd set off down the N11, and we had a nice, easy, chatty ride as far as Rathdrum, where about half the group peeled off towards home. The rest of us went down through Ballinaclash and Greenane, with a bit of climbing thrown in, then coffee and cake in Laragh before upping the pace on the way back home. I felt great on the day - loads of energy, and was able to just about stick with the leading group within myself where I would have been absolutely killing myself to keep them in sight a few months ago. Hopefully I'll continue to progress over the winter, and come into the racing season strong.

Aims for next week are more of the same, but I think I need to get the lights on and out on the road at least one of the weeknights. The high intensity sessions on the turbo trainer are great, but for base miles I think you need to be outdoors.

One_Time

Distance: 182km
Time: 6hrs 46mins
Ascent: 1,840m
Avg Speed: 26.9kph

Managed to up my distance a bit, as planned, but I think I may have gone a bit too hard on the intensity, as my legs are really feeling dead this morning!

Tuesday was so nice I decided to take advantage and dived out of work for an hour long spin locally. Since I knew I had to make it fast I hit it hard. Had a really good time, and got a bunch of PRs on Strava, which is always pretty cheering. Took a couple of days off and then did an hour on the TT on Friday with a Sufferfest video, nearly fell over when I got off the bike! Saturday afternoon I snuck off for a two hour recovery spin, which was really nice but really cold. Wrapped the week up by hitting the road bright and early on Sunday morning. Again, absolutely freezing, but the sun was bright and I managed to avoid the ice. I'd planned on only going medium intensity, but the adrenaline spiked on the first climb and hit it fairly hard. Did 85km in total, of which I'd say about 60k was at 7 or 8 out of 10 intensity. Legs died on me about 10k from home and my avg speed dropped about 5kph for the last bit.

So overall, happy with the time and distance, but got a bit carried away and pushed harder than intended for about 100km of the total :-) Also learned that going out on both days of the weekend isn't well received at home.

For this week, going to try and keep the distance the same, or even up it a bit, with 2hrs medium on Tuesday, 1 hr easy on Wednesday, 1 hr hard on Thursday, then 4/5hrs on the club spin on either Saturday or Sunday. Let's see how it goes!

One_Time

Distance: 161km
Time: 5hrs 55mins
Ascent: 1,543m
Avg Speed: 27.2kph

I didn't manage to up the distance on the previous week as I'd hoped, but still a decent amount, and roughly the same on the last few weeks. They were enjoyable miles too - a nice solo 50k on Wednesday afternoon, followed by the club spin on Saturday. Overall took them handy enough, but there were a few little digs on the way back home to remind me I'd been out come Sunday. A trip up home to visit the folks had put paid to my planned interval session on the turbo on Thursday, but there's no use crying over spilt milk, and looking back over the prior week there's an argument to be made I'd done a bit too much at high intensity then so I've talked myself into believing it did me no harm

For this week I've already made a start with an easy hour on the turbo this evening. I hope to get out for a couple of hours at medium intensity tomorrow, then an hour's intervals on Thursday, and the club spin on Saturday, so I'd like to get over the 200k for this week, then keep that up until Christmas, when I plan to have a week off. I'm putting a good bit of thought into my targets for next year, and I'll tie them down and launch a new training plan in January.

One_Time

Distance: 165.6km
Time: 6hrs 30mins
Ascent: 998m
Avg Speed: 25.5kph

Bit of a weird one this week. Ended up doing 3 sessions on the turbo trainer - an easy 50 mins on Monday, a hard hour on Tuesday then 90 mins steady on Friday. Didn't plan it that way, I just had one of those weeks where I never had a chance to get out and I wanted to get a bit of work in.

The Tuesday was to a sufferfest vid, and i didn't feel great on it. Checked my performance against the last time I did that vid three weeks ago and I was a good bit slower on each of the intervals, and had to stop about 30 secs before the end of the last one, so assuming the resistance hasn't changed (which it may have done - the resistance controls on my turbo are a bit iffy) I clearly wasn't in the best of shape last week.

Friday I decided to try something a bit different. Threw the highlights from '09 Milan-San Remo on and pedalled along to them for an hour and a half. It was actually alright - never thought I'd be able to stick 90 minutes indoors, but managed it ok! The only problem was that the battery went in my HR strap, so I may have got a bit carried away. I certainly felt a little tired Saturday morning.

Finally managed to get out for a real spin on Sunday morning. The wind was ferocious, and I managed to pick a route where I was cycling straight into it for the first half. The same half was also pretty hilly - 900m ascent in the first 40k - so I nearly killed myself and needed to spend the second half recovering.

All in all I came to the end of the week feeling absolutely exhausted and with pretty dead legs. I guess that means I've been pushing it too hard - six solid weeks in a row - and need to row back the intensity. I'm going to take it easy this week - maybe a nice easy spin for a couple of hours tomorrow, and similar over the weekend, then ramp distance back up next week (but not intensity).

I like to think of these sorts of things as learning experiences (but then I like to think of all the stupid things I do as learning experiences. It makes me feel less stupid.)

One_Time

Distance: 5,887km
Time: 237hrs
Avg Speed: 24.8kph
Ascent: 65,630m

So that's 2012 done! I spent the first half of the year just going on a spin whenever I felt like it, which was nice and got me in decent nick for taking in a couple of sportives during the summer. That was good craic and whetted my appetite for more!

I decided to get more focussed in July after the Martin Codyre Challenge, getting out for four days most weeks, with some Intervals and Hill Repeats, also watching what I eat. That's when I started this log. I started seeing good results really quickly, and when I got talked into going on some club spins by a persuasive Boardsie in September I was chuffed to not embarass myself and also get the opportunity to learn from some much stronger cyclists. That was when I decided I definitely want to give racing a go.

Come October a new arrival at home took priority, and when I got back on the bike again the Winter was here and I didn't get out as much. I feel like I've just been treading water the last couple of months, and had a persistent chesty cough keep me off the bike the last couple of weeks, but I'm really motivated to get back doing proper training again!

Personal Highlights:
Wicklow 200 in 7hrs 45 mins
SKT 160 in 6hrs
Tour of Louth in Gold Medal Time
Keeping up on Tuesday Training
Incredible weather on Tour de Conamara!

One_Time

It's been six months now since I started my training log. I found it really useful to keep me focussed and motivated, and it's been great to get feedback from the community here and get ideas from everyone elses' logs. I'd definitely recommend keeping one to anyone starting out. I've also been lucky enough to meet some boardsies who'd been following it in real life and start training with a few of them, which has been a massive help.

Here were my targets when I started:

One_Time wrote: »

1) Lose 15 pounds by 21/10/12 (to get me to BMI of 20)
2) Join a club and keep up on one of the quicker spins (was planning on joining around the Autumn and just keeping up with the odd Sportive in the meantime)
3) Keep up in an A4 race
(and the stretch targets)
4) 10km TT in 15 minutes
5) Place in an A4 race

1) Achieved this and have maintained the weight since
2) Achieved
3) Planning on doing this in a couple of months
4) & 5) Still feel like I'm pretty far from these!

Overall I'm very pleased with my progress after six months. I feel like I need to get the focus of the first three months back though, especially with only a couple of months to go before the racing season starts. With that in mind, I'm going to try to move back to four days a week regularly from now on, with at least two days of Intervals (club training or on the turbo), a recovery spin and a long spin with the club at the weekend. Target is a minimum of 6 hours a week, with a preference for 8. I'm also adding some core and upper body exercises and getting more conscientious about stretching. With that in mind, here are my new targets for 2013!:

1) Take part in an A4 Race
2) Cycle 8,000km in 2013
3) Take part in 80% of club races
4) Gain 5lbs and reduce Body Fat by 2%

My stretch targets will remain
5) 10km TT in 15 minutes
6) Place in an A4 race

I feel like this is moving into a new phase, so I'm going to finish this log and start a new one next week. Wish me luck!

Plastik

Get yourself out tomorrow evening with the group. Don't be worried about your condition. You're in far better fettle than I was this time last year and I managed just fine! It'll bring you on loads.

One_Time

There's that encouragement I was talking about! Yeah, you might see me alright. Raring to get back out again...

Slo_Rida

One_Time wrote: »

Distance: 165.6km
Time: 6hrs 30mins
Ascent: 998m
Avg Speed: 25.5kph


The Tuesday was to a sufferfest vid, and i didn't feel great on it. Checked my performance against the last time I did that vid three weeks ago and I was a good bit slower on each of the intervals, and had to stop about 30 secs before the end of the last one, so assuming the resistance hasn't changed (which it may have done - the resistance controls on my turbo are a bit iffy) I clearly wasn't in the best of shape last week.

If your tyre was a bit softer this time that could also cause the change. Fair play on the training, your clocking the miles and hours.
Slo

Slo_Rida

Let us know what your first race(s) will be and how you get on. I'm starting my first race season Feb 24th in Loughrea so we can compare notes after we've both raced. You seem to have clocked a lot more hours than me where I condensed mine into fewer (possibly more intense) sessions.
Best of luck with your racing in any case,
Slo

One_Time

Cheers Slo. I'll probably be aiming to start in the Mick Lally the following week myself. It'd certainly be interesting to compare experiences! I guess whatever our milage over the winter it's time to start buckling down to the serious intervals now. Best of luck to you too (and good call on the tire pressure - I'll be sure to double check mine before getting it on the TT from now on)