I'm sweating and breathing, and staring and thinking

One_Time

New year and a new log!

Targets for the year as identified in the old log remain

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

One_Time

Got back on the bike after a partially enforced three week break over Christmas. Felt good and got more than intended done -

Distance: 217km
Time: 7hrs 47mins
Ascent: 1,417m

Intensity levels were good, also coming in ahead of intentions.

Started the week with Club training on Tuesday evening. As a beginner, I was put in with a relaxed enough group, which was perfect for me in my first ride back. I'm also still learning about riding in groups. It was my first time doing constantly rolling up and overs. Found it quite hard to moderate my speed on hitting the front, but I hope I was getting the hang of it towards the end.

Wednesday took a real easy recovery ride.

Thursday set the TT up in front of the telly on my lunch break and did Sufferfest "The Hunted", which is great because it includes a 20 minute effort which should work pretty well as a LTHR test. I've now recalculated my HR zones based on that. Not a million miles away from the old Max HR based ones, but good to know anyway. It was also great to know I could keep going for so long at that level of intensity.

Came in handy on Saturday, when I went out for my first long training ride with the race training group. We only went over one long climb, but I felt I did pretty well, going over the top with two of the stronger riders having been ahead of them much of the way. I really felt the effects of that effort later though, when we did constant up and overs for about 10k. Much further and I think I would have dropped off the back, but hanging in there was great for the confidence.

For the coming week, I hope to do similar distance/time, but up the intensity a little, particularly on Tuesday.

One_Time

Weather and family commitments knocked my training time back a good bit this week. Had to babysit on Tuesday, so did an hour of sprint intervals on the TT at lunchtime rather than heading to team training in the evening. Did an easy hour's spinning on Wednesday evening, then an hour's Climbing intervals on the TT at lunchtime on Thursday. Took Friday off with the intention of going on club training on Saturday, but a teething baby led me to sleep out my alarm. I did manage to get myself out after breakfast for 90 mins on my own.

Overall, the week was lower on time than I wanted by about 3 hours, and intensity was also lower, but I still felt wrecked heading out on Saturday and I think I would have struggled if I'd made it on the club spin. I think it was a combination of a few night's broken sleep in a row with hitting the program too hard. With that in mind, I'm going to aim for a similar week in Wk 3 to what I did in Wk 1.

Other than on the bike work, I did pretty well on my core work and also attended an interesting talk on sports nutrition on Thursday, and I'll be trying to put some of the learnings into practise now.

One_Time

Got back on track this week with almost 8 hours on the bike.

Tuesday club training was cancelled due to a freeze being forecast. Come 6pm the weather seemed to have changed a bit, so I headed out myself and met up with another pair and we just did 90 mins of basic paceline drills. Decent level of intensity, but nothing crazy.

Wednesday took an easy spin around the locality to loosen out the legs

Thursday hopped on the Turbo Trainer for 45 mins. Did a few 1 minute on, 1 minute off sprint intervals, then 4 min and 10 min intervals at gradually increasing intensity. Felt pretty drained at the end of it, then ran out for a really good talk from one of the club coaches on race day preparation and tactics.

Rounded the week off with a long spin with the race training group. It was one of those days where things just aren't going right for you. The legs felt a little dead from the moment I left the house, and I realised going up the road that I'd forgotten my food bag. We headed down the coast into a head wind, and I wasn't feeling great any time I hit the front. I decided to lurk at the back for a bit, and then one of the lads was good enough to take pity on me and sort me out with a banana and a gel. Started to perk up a bit then, and I was happy to be able to hang in on two tough efforts put in on the way back. Got home and ate everything I could get my hands on, then was pleased to still have the energy to look after the baby for the evening. Last time I got back from one of those spins I had to take a snooze!

Legs felt pretty stiff yesterday, and still tired today. For this week, I plan on reducing the intensity. Doing club training on Tuesday evening, then taking it easy for a few days. Easy spin on Thursday, no interval session, maybe do the club touring spin on Saturday rather than the race group.

Starting to think about my first race as well - maybe Culmullin GP or Cycleways Cup?

t'bear

One_Time wrote: »

Last time I got back from one of those spins I had to take a snooze!

Well done, I am always diligent about food bags (not so much with gloves, neck warmers etc). Above bit rings very true for me, I used to have to have a little lie down for an hour, came in yesterday from 90k, shower and then a hectic afternoon with kids. No problem

One_Time

That's the end of my rest week!

The week started off with a bit of a wake up call. As I said in my last update, I was starting to feel a bit fatigued after three weeks of quite intense effort. Tuesday I thought it was too windy to head out for club training, so I just climbed up on the Turbo Trainer. Even though my legs were willing, I couldn't get my heart rate up. Maxed out at 177 on a 4 min interval where I'd usually get up over 190. Started to fatigue much quicker as well. Felt like death so I cut that session short. I guess I should have listened to my body and started the rest period sooner!

I had to travel for work after that, so I got in 45 minutes on a gym bike in the hotel on Thursday. Very low intensity.

Saturday I gave the race training a miss and went out with the touring group. Again, it was pretty sedate. Heart rate averaged about 25 lower than the previous week. It was a nice day out in the sunshine, with a couple of new climbs thrown in for good measure (taken handy), and my legs felt great afterwards, so I felt like the recovery was going well.

Saturday afternoon I went for a sports massage. Never had one before, but a friend is coming up to the end of her course, so she wanted someone to practice on :P Apparently my flexibility is good, and all my tendons are fine, but my ITB is very tight. She did some work on it and my legs were in bits yesterday, but feeling much better today.

One_Time

A mixed week for motivation! I skipped club training on Tuesday, since I had testing scheduled for Wednesday. That went pretty well, and I got some interesting results which I'll hopefully be able to use in putting my future training plans together. It was 35 mins on the bike, and got pretty intense towards the end!

Thursday I did some intervals on the TT - 5x4 mins in threshold, with 3 min recovery, and a few 30 sec max efforts to warm up at the start. My HR wasn't getting up as high as it usually does in that sort of workout, and afterwards my legs felt absolutely shattered.

Come Saturday I didn't feel like I'd recovered. Legs felt heavy even heading towards the meet up for the club spin. We went over Glenmacnass, and I was able to keep with the group on the main climb, but it really took a lot out of me. Again, it felt like my legs were on fire, but my HR wasn't getting up into the anaerobic zones it usually would when I'm putting in that sort of perceived effort. Come the smaller climb by Lough Tay I fell off the back of the group a bit and then struggled home on the back.

My legs are still feeling heavy today, which is three days later, and I feel like my recovery is taking longer than usual. Even the week before my rest week I'd noticed a similar thing, with my legs still heavy after the Thursday intervals on the Saturday spin. One part of me says I should just keep on pushing at the same intensity until it comes right again, but I'm going to try just dialling it back again and hoping I recover. I feel like when I'm well rested I'm quite strong, so I'm not panicking about the need to build more strength. Also, I'd imagine I'll get more benefit from being able to go all out on a well rested Saturday spin than from hitting the turbo trainer hard on a Thursday and struggling round for four hours on the weekend.

With that in mind, I'm going to head to Club training tonight, then replace my Thursday intervals with a couple of hours at or below tempo, then head out on the weekend hoping to be able to push it hard.