C3PO's 2013 Log

C3PO

Having narrowly missed my fairly loose 2012 cycling targets of 500hours (485hrs) and 10,000kms (9660kms) but exceeding my climbing target of 150,000mts (162,000mts) I’ve decided to be a bit more structured this year.

I split my cycling time approximately 50/50 between the mountain and road bike (with a few Cross races thrown in!) so distance covered is not really that relevant a measure for me – time and metres climbed are more important. And while I will do a few road races my main competitive focus is offroad with my main target being two marathon events, within three days in the South of France in October at the Roc D’Azur MTB festival!

So to keep myself honest I’m going to post my training targets (and results) here on a regular basis during 2013. My annual training targets are as follows;
1) Recorded Cycling Time – 550 hours
2) Metres Climbed – 170,000 metres
3) Kilometres Cycled – 10,500kms

I’m 52 next month, pretty fit and have very strong endurance (think 80’s Mercedes diesel engine – noisy but still going strong at 220,000 miles!) but I’m very “single speeded” and quickly blow up when I’m out of my comfort zone! So in an attempt to improve my recovery I’m also going to start doing regular blocks of interval training. I will start these in February.

Finally I need to lose a few more kilos in weight – I lost 10kgs last year between January and the Roc D’Azur in October but put 4kgs back on between then and January 1st! So on January 1st I was 84kgs and I would ideally like to be 78kgs by October but definitely back down to 80kgs maximum!

So targets for January are;
1) Recorded Cycling Time – 40 hours
2) Metres Climbed – 12,500 metres
3) Kilometres Cycled – 765 kms
4) 83kgs weight

Regular updates to follow!

Beasty

C3PO wrote: »

So targets for January are;
1) Recorded Cycling Time – 40 hours
2) Metres Climbed – 12,500 metres
3) Kilometres Cycled – 765 kms
4) 83kgs weight

Haha - that's what I like - set the January target with 1 day to go ...:)

Anyway, good luck with it C3PO - you're only a youngster so it sould be a piece of cake ...

C3PO

Beasty wrote: »

Haha - that's what I like - set the January target with 1 day to go ...:)

Anyway, good luck with it C3PO - you're only a youngster so it sould be a piece of cake ...

Yeh, I was afraid I'd get picked up on that and you'll never guess but it looks like I'm going to make them too!!!

C3PO

So January numbers were as follows:
Recorded Cycling Time – 42.2 hours (40hrs)
Metres Climbed – 14,206 metres (12,500mts)
Kilometres Cycled – 911 kms (765kms)
82.5kgs weight (83kgs)

A bit ahead on all counts despite the lousy weather so well pleased!

February is a short month so targets are a bit lower than January:
1) Recorded Cycling Time – 38 hours
2) Metres Climbed – 11,780 metres
3) Kilometres Cycled – 725 kms
4) 82kgs weight

Starting from the 3rd week of Feb I'm also going to introduce a 5 minute 3/4/5/3 repeat interval block. Never had much success with following structured interval sessions so it will be interesting to see how I get on this time!

C3PO

Found February a real slog! Seemed to be a constant battle with the elements - rain, snow and wind! Really struggled to keep the hours up so pretty pleased to have a small miss on the Time (short 30 minutes) and the Weight (.2kg over where I'd hoped) targets! Ahead on the other measures.

So February numbers:
Recorded Cycling Time – 37.5 hours (38hrs)
Metres Climbed – 13,160 metres (11,780mts)
Kilometres Cycled – 786 kms (725kms)
82.2kgs weight (82kgs)

Completed first MTB race of the season in February too - Top half of the field in Super Pro Catagory in the Wicklow Biking Blitz!

Looking to ramp it up for March:
1) Recorded Cycling Time – 46 hours
2) Metres Climbed – 14,250 metres
3) Kilometres Cycled – 900 kms
4) 81.5kgs weight

Will also do at least one road race (Cycleways Cup) and the Ticknock round of the Biking Blitz series!

C3PO

C3PO wrote: »

Looking to ramp it up for March:

1) Recorded Cycling Time – 46 hours
2) Metres Climbed – 14,250 metres
3) Kilometres Cycled – 900 kms
4) 81.5kgs weight

Will also do at least one road race (Cycleways Cup) and the Ticknock round of the Biking Blitz series!

If ever there was a reason to set yourself montly/weekly targets, last month was it! The temptation to just stay at home on more than a few occasions was overpowering - on the morning of Saturday 23rd I'd only managed 2 hours of a 9 hour weekly target! Two tough days followed!!

Can't say I enjoyed quite a few of the spins last month which were really miserable but managed to hit the numbers:

Recorded Time - 47 hours 20 minutes
Metres Climbed - 17,345 metres
Kilometres Cycled - 925 kms

Struggling to lose the weight though .... still hovering around 82-82.5 kgs and the Easter eggs over the last few days won't have helped!!

April is a shorter month than March in terms of my cycling days but still looking for a bit of "uplift"!

April Targets

1) Recorded Time - 50 hours
2) Metres Climbed - 15500 metres
3) Kilometres Cycled - 950 kms
4) Weight - 81.5kgs